MllrfW ■ — mSSpk 9 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. H wj __ J .. iw| | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, f M/V ) ;V 1 ;■- USSa?-**.^"* HO \.\ L >• NU » PALANKEEN TRAVELLING. GLANCE BACKWARD AT FIFTEEN YEARS OF MISSIONARY LIFE IN NORTH INDIA. BY THE Rev. JOSEPH' WARREN, D. D. 3W. sty PHILADELPHIA: PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, No. 265 Chests ut Street. 1856. • -&v 3 > &/ W 3 & Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by JAMES DUNLAP, Treas. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. NOTE. SOUNDS OF LETTERS IN HINDUSTANI WORDS, u in butter. a in father. ch in church. ai in pain. g in good. i in pin. ee in seen. o in note. Q, q, has the sound of k thrown back in the throat, IT, u, sounds like u in pull. U', u, " " oo in fool. Ai, " " i in /ke. Au, " " ow in no^. N. B. Some consonants have peculiar sounds, which cannot be imitated by mere readers, and it has not been thought worth while to mention them. Names of places, which have obtained a current orthography in English, have been written accord- ingly here, however incorrect. For instance Benares, correctly written, would be Banaras, in three syllables. A, a, sounds like A , a, a « Ch, « n E, e, a it G, g, a a I, if it a iVi, ti a 0, o it a ERKATA. Page 47, line 12, for swarz read swarg. Page 59, line 3 from bottom, for found read formed. Page 60, line 4, &c, for Tcauda read kanda. Page 71, line 18, for might had, read might have had. Page 78, line 5 from bottom, for Bez read 2?e#. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Time of sailing. The party of missionaries. Notice of Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Freeman. Plan and object of this work.. . .13 — 15 CHAPTER II. HOUSE-KEEPING AND LEARNING THE LANGUAGES. Commencement of house-keeping. Description of a Bungalow: floors, ceiling, walls. Kitchen. Servants, why so many. The water-carrier. Ignorance of the language. Our new house and furniture. The carpets. The carpenter: his tools and his caste. Another carpenter, and Br&hmanical extortion. The theft. The charge of burglary. First lessons in Hindustani. History of Patthras. My Munshis and studies. Hinderances. The marriage of missionaries * 16 — 43 CHAPTER III. THE PRINTING-HOUSE. Reasons of my accepting and leaving it. Proposed Press at Benares taken over. Increase of printing. Language and dia- lects. The alphabets used. Native characters unfit for printing. A specimen of spelling. The Roman alphabet. Comparative expense of alphabets. Commencement of the establishment. The first thing printed. The Persian compositor. The first job-work. Difficulties. Some Mohammedans turn Christian in order to drink. Another bad professed convert. History of Dillii. Native evasion. Building a printing-house. How lime is made and cheating done. The room for preaching. The depository. White ants. Additions to the establishment. Early works printed. The type-foundry. Effect of the Press. Orphan asylum and bindery. The new print- ing house. Job-work, Reasons for doing it 43 — 72 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. CATECHISTS: THEIR TRAINING, CHARACTER AND USEFULNESS. Importance of native helpers. Limited choice of them. Common mode of training. System adopted by the Synod. Success only partial. A Seminary necessary. Usefulness of Catechists. Their difficulties. Catechists as literary assistants. Their location at sub-stations. Account of a fall and recovery. The young Afgan. Another Catechist. Singular history of another. Hari Das : the murder of a lord; the effect of long habit. A sad and a pleasant history connected. Remarks on what we ought to expect... 72 — 96 CHAPTER V. CHURCH BUILDINGS, AND PREACHING AT THE STATIONS. Necessity of places of worship. Purchase of mission-house, and settlement of orphan asylums. The old mint. The English congre- gation, and their church edifice. Their removal to Agra. Building of the mission church. The chapel near the printing-house. The Chauk and its chapel. The Musalmani convert, and the chapel at Kyd Ganj. English services. Hindustani services. Christian musicians. Preaching to the heathen: hinderances and helps; street preaching ; interruptions; specimens of disputes; the lying objector; Sunni and Shia differences; insults; two villages near Allahabad ; preaching at ghats ; to women ; bathing ; preaching at the Chauk chapel; preaching in surrounding villages ; preaching on horseback; the woman carrying her husband's ashes; preaching at fairs; that of 1847 at Allahabad; services; visitors; the swing- ing faqir; the Sanyari dinner party; inquirers; a trick; fair of 1850; hidden ones; scientific inquiries; decline of fairs; convert at Jubbulpore; Hardwar fair in 1853; the blessed foot-print near Agra; singular objection and dispute; another foot-print at Alla- habad. Preaching to oriental Christians at Agra. Distant influence of Nestorian missions. Visitors at our houses. 97 — 146 CHAPTER VI. ITINERATIONS. The cool season. Accommodations for travellers in India: few hotels; dak bungalows ; the Sara. One effect of caste. Mode of using tents. Preaching in rural villages. Various incidents of travel: the converted gentleman; the Brahman at the bathing- place; the worn out pilgrim; the Hindu cupid; the flooded tent; CONTENTS. XI the naked faqlr; sad news; the Mohammedan saint on a tamarind stump; Hindus regard Sunday; a Musalman disputant; the city of Moses; a new goddess; taste as to the fine arts; levity of the Hindus; worship of the cow; a burnt village. Journey in the Hini- malayd; a dishonest man; temples and worship; covetousness ; desecration of a god; T&tar architecture; the R&na of Balsan and his territory. More itinerating necessary. The field and the work 147—177 CHAPTER VII. THE PREPARATION OF BOOKS FOR THE PRESS. Time that may be spent in writing. The Scriptures. Necessity of literary labour. Destitution of good literature. Erroneous and corrupt books. Want of reliable history. Missionaries must aid in supplying the want. A Hindu theory of winds and storms. Mo- hammedan conceit and vanity. Mohammedan objections to New Testament. A strange map of the world. Character of their poetry and fiction. Works produced by Allahabad mission. The Lodiana mission. My own works. Difficulties in translating. The kind of men needed in India. Thoughts for the Church.. 17 8— 188 CHAPTER VIII. RELATIONS WITH EUROPEANS AND EAST INDIANS, AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON OUR WORK. What constitutes a gentleman. An Anglo-Indian custom. Social standing of Missionary families. Ignorance of some parties. Con- sequent unfairness. Devout persons; their kindness to missiona- ries. Missionary influence on society. Chaplains. Church of England dignitaries. State of religion amongst the English. Pres- byterian church at Agra; its singular relations and their conse- quences: its new house of worship. English aid to the Christian press. The Tract and Book Society. Agra Bible Society. The Papists at Agra. Female day-schools at Allahabad and Agra. Schools for the East Indians at Agra: necessity felt; foundation and failure of the Protestant Academy ; history of the founding of our Boys' School — aid received; a similar history of the Girls' School — aid received — the leadings of Providence. The course of lectures. European soldiers. Influence of low East Indians. Evil influence of some officers. The Musalmdn convert. Other evils. Good predominates 189 — 219 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. SUCCESS. Necessary lapse of time. Difficulties: caste; philosophical sys- tems. Amount of success in numbers. Nature of it. Some cases : Poor Blind Sally; Mr. Wilson's catechist; Jatni. General impres- sion in favour of Christianity. Improved position of converts. In- fluence upon caste. The town of Kara and an inquirer. The pleasing inquirer and his mysterious disappearance. The old Mo- hammedan gentleman. The lawyer. The orphan asylums. Works of controversy against us. The effect of schools. Appeal for India 219—253 Conclusion 254 MISSIONARY LIFE IN NORTH INDIA, CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. In October, 1838, the reinforcement to our North India Mission, of which my family constituted a part, sailed from Philadelphia. At this distance from that time it is instructive to turn back and recall our feel- ings for a moment. Any one, who has left his native land for a prolonged residence abroad, if he were at all accustomed to reflection and feeling, must have felt vividly the uncertainty of his ever again mingling with the associates who had made the scenes of his early days dear to him. A missionary feels that it is highly probable that he will not live to see his friends again. The wrench given to his affections is most exquisite. Even if he be sure of a future visit to his country, he cannot but feel that he is to be separated from relatives, churches, fellow-students, society — all dear to him ; and just when his social affections are warmest, and when he most feels the need of the aid to be derived from their proper indul- gence. And if he has any proper sense of the mag- nitude and difficulty of the work to which he is going, his soul will be filled with trembling. The surviving members of our party will never forget the melting of 2 14 MISSIONARY LIFE heart that we felt. Never did we feel so cut adrift from the world; nor did we ever so really feel that Christ was all to us. The first few days of our voy- age were full of the contests of natural yearnings with the workings of those higher feelings, motives and principles that lay at the foundation of our going forth. Never did Christ seem so precious to us as when we had given all that we cared for to him. When we do most for him, then we can most appro- priate him; not from the idea that we deserve more, but because we then come to feel more that we have nothing but him. Our party consisted of the Rev. James L. Scott and Mrs. Scott, the Rev. John B. Freeman and Mrs. Freeman, with Mrs. Warren and myself. Of this party, Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Freeman, after several years of great usefulness, are gone to a higher and a better sphere. I will not refrain from the pleasure of paying a deserved tribute to their worth. The leading characteristic of Mrs. Scott was an energetic, untiring spirit of enterprise. She was always ready cheerfully to undertake any work by which she could benefit the people, and promote the object of our mis- sion. Mrs. Freeman was more known for great and quiet gentleness — -a gentleness that did not make her influence less than that of the other lamented woman. The females of the Allahabad mission church were influenced by her to such an extent, that we may look for the fruit of her labours to be reproduced, again and again, in the future history of our Church in India. Both of them were our dear friends; and both left blanks in our circle that will not be filled in this world. A list of friends may be lengthened — blanks are rarely filled. It would be useless to give an account of our voy- age after such a lapse of time. The public is suf- ficiently acquainted both with such subjects, and with the general impressions of missionaries on reaching IN NORTH INDIA. 15 the country of their destination. The journey up the Ganges has also been described by others, so that it is not necessary to refer further to that. We will, therefore, pass over all these matters, and proceed, in the next chapter, to look at missionary experience in the field of actual operations. The plan of this work is simple. It is to give specimens of all kinds of experience, both happy and sad ; and to display all our ordinary modes of work- ing, the reasons for them, and their results. The people and the circumstances, that affect our work, must be taken into view. The mode of doing this, which has been chosen, is to give a personal narrative of my own experience — not chronologically, but as to different subjects. My object is, to keep the indi- vidual out of sight, as far as the nature of the plan will permit; and on the thin thread of personal narra- tive to string anecdotes, sketches, and specimens, until the reader shall be able to gather an intelligible notion of our life and labours in India. An attempt is made to keep the reader from being wearied by the mere clanking of machinery, by interrupting and illustrating the narrative with all sorts of facts related to it. An additional chapter contains a brief sketch of the government of that country, and of different classes of persons, who are mentioned in the course of the work, so far as is necessary for the understand- ing of the narrative. The object of the book is, to help the friends of missions to a full knowledge of the work, so that they may form just expectations, and be led to go forward with more interest in the matter, more earnestness of desire and purpose, and more hope, patience, and prayer. 16 MISSIONARY LIFE CHAPTER II. HOUSE-KEEPING AND LEARNING THE LANGUAGES. After reaching Allahabad we found that the Mis- sion families were not in a position to keep us in their houses with any convenience to themselves or to us. A large bungalow had been taken for us and Mr. and Mrs. Freeman jointly. As Mrs. Freeman was ill, they could not join us in house-keeping immediately ; and we therefore began by ourselves at once. While we had been tarrying at Benares, our boats had come on, and were unloaded the same day that we arrived. We spent the next day after our arrival, which was the Sabbath, at the house of one of our friends, and on Monday began our house-keep- ing- As bungalows in Upper India differ considerably from descriptions of them in the Madras Presidency and Ceylon, which I have seen in books published in America, a description of the one in which we first- lived, and of that which w T as afterwards bought for us, may be interesting. The one that was hired for our temporary use was much larger than missionaries need, or ever use in ordinary circumstances. It was situated nearly in the centre of a square lot of about six acres. A lane passing between two fields led to it from a retired road, so that the place was quiet and free from dust. In front of the house was a small parterre of flowering shrubs. The western part of the ground was a garden nearly filled with fruit trees. Along the north wall of the yard was a range of buildings — clay walls and tiled roofs — which con- tained the kitchen, stable, carriage- house, and about a dozen rooms intended as tenements for servants. The house faced the south. The entrance was a deep verandah, running the whole length of the IN NORTH INDIA. 17 house, except that a small room was inclosed in each end of it, used as lumber rooms, or places in which the servants cleaned the lamps and performed similar work for the house. The largest room of the house was about thirty-five feet long, and twenty-two wide, stretching along the front. At the ends of this room were two smaller ones, serving as servants' hall, or pantry, or for any temporary use; though in truth their main office was to serve as passages to other rooms, and to keep the heated outer walls as far as pos- sible from the principal apartments. Behind this range of rooms was another of three, of which the middle one was largest. This room had no door opening into the verandah on any side, but was entirely sur- rounded by other rooms. The light in it was conse- quently scanty, and the room gloomy, so that it would be very rarely used, except in the very hottest weather, when its distance from the external walls would make it more cool than any other place in the house. Back of these three rooms were two large bed-rooms. The ends and back part of the house were protected by verandahs ; but the one in the rear was enclosed and cut up into small rooms, to serve as bathing rooms, &c. The house was of but one story, and covered an enormous quantity of ground for the amount of accommodation it afforded, compared with houses in America. But it was intended to accommodate but one ordinary family, and to keep out the heat as much as possible. The roof was pointed in the centre, very steep, and ran down low, projecting out from the verandahs, so that the lower edge of it was not more than nine feet from the ground. It was of grass, and about nine inches thick. The house presented scarcely anything but roof to the view at a little distance: it suggested the idea of a short stout person hidden by an enormous and ungainly sun-bonnet. The house that was bought for. us shortly after, 2* 18 MISSIONARY LIFE ■was much smaller, but in other respects very similar to the other. The roof was of the same form and material; the verandah completely surrounded the house, and bathing-rooms were formed in it at three corners. The rooms that it contained were — one of twenty-two feet by sixteen ; at the end of this a pan- try ; and, back of these, two rooms of fifteen by six- teen feet each. This was too small to keep out the heat; and it not only afforded no accommodation for visitors, but was not sufficient for our family. After living in it some years, however, we were kindly allowed to add a sitting-room and study to this, which, with some minor alterations, made it a sufficiently good house. The floors of bungalows are made of lime. The foundation of the house is first filled up with clay, which is well rammed down ; then a course of broken bricks or hankar [limestone nodules] is laid over the clay and beaten down ; then coarse lime mixed with small kankar is put on and very well beaten ; then a plaster of finer lime is laid over all, and beaten lightly by a crowd of boys and girls for a long time, till, from being like a puddle of water, it becomes al- most dry; and then it is finished off with a thin coat- ing of pure white lime, not laid on like whitewash, but rubbed into the surface of the plaster, and carefully smoothed. Sugar, and various other arti- cles, are incorporated with the two upper strata of this formation, to make the floor hard. The ceiling of the rooms is cloth, tied to hooks over a cornice round the sides of the room, and sup- ported by bamboos that run across the room. The cloth is white-washed ; so that, when well put up, it closely resembles the plain lath and plaster ceilings in American houses. This cloth keeps scorpions, centipedes, and many other inconvenient things, from falling into the rooms, and upon whatever they con- tain. IN NORTH INDIA. 19 The walls of these houses are made either of burnt bricks, or of those which are only sun-dried, or of clay in successive courses. All of them are plastered and whitened or coloured. The plaster is usually a pre- paration of lime, but is sometimes only clay and chopped straw. The walls, though clay, or laid up with clay mortar, stand well as long as protected from the rain ; but if the white ants go up through the walls, and eat the thatch over them, as they often do, the first rain sends down a stream of water, which gutters the wall, and brings with it a load of clay into the rooms. The first rain that we saw in India caused us this awkward accident, in the hired house spoken of above. We sent for the agent of the house-owner, and showed him our trouble; but as we had nothing in that room to be spoiled, he laughed at us for con- sidering the matter so sad and serious as we evidently did. A little straw thrust into the roof, and a little clay plaster applied to the wall, made all right for that season. We lived about six weeks in the hired house, till our own was purchased. During this time we were struggling to learn how to speak to the people, and to understand the ways of house-keeping in that strange country. We could not have the kitchen in the house; the heat absolutely forbade that. Even the poorest natives do not kindle their fires for cook- ing inside their houses in the hot weather, but out of doors. We were, therefore obliged to keep servants. Many people in America may be astonished that we, who could have got on very well with one servant in America, should in India keep several. A long detail of circumstances, to justify ourselves, will not be entered upon here; it is, or ought to be, sufficient to state simply that we were obliged to do so. We, having a fixed allowance, had quite as many inducements to lay up money as any clergyman's family in America; and missionaries, as a class, are 20 MISSIONARY LIFE no more likely to waste an income on servants for show than any other people. We should have been glad to live with fewer servants, and to have received a smaller fixed allowance from the Board of Foreign Missions, had it been practicable. But the exhaust- ing climate, the necessary distance of the kitchen, the day-by-day mode of living there, the inveterate inef- ficiency of the servants, and the institution of caste, all combined to force us to have several servants, and still to be as badly served as a family in America is with one poor servant in their house. As to the last particular mentioned — caste — it operated in this way: the cook would not dust the furniture or sweep the house — it was against his caste. By this is not meant that there was any religious reason why he should not do these things — he could not be counted unclean for doing them ; but the people of his caste had agreed that these things were low, and that they would not do them; — they are usually done by men of lower caste, and therefore they would persecute one of their own men if he did them. Again, the man that dusted the furniture would not sweep — it was beneath him ; and the sweeper would not dust the furniture — he had never learned, and felt no need to learn, because he could get a living as a scavenger. Neither of them, would bring water, for it was not their trade; and if we did not employ a regular water-carrier, every man about the place cried out, How are we to get water? Some years after our first settlement at Allahabad we had a boy from the orphan asylum to provide for. He was not a good boy, and could not be trusted in the printing-house, where there were opportunities to pilfer; but he was a nominal Christian, and it was our duty to give him employment and keep him under the means of grace if we could. We therefore made him water-carrier. We put a bucket and windlass to the well, and procured a yoke and pair of buckets for him. This made it easier for him to draw and carry IN NORTH INDIA. 21 water than the Asiatic method, where it is usually drawn in a little, leaky, leathern bucket, by a small line drawn hand over hand, and carried in a goat-skin over the back. It also made it practicable for each person to draw for himself. But the complaints were loud and long. Nearly all our people, in the house and printing-house, refused to drink the water brought by a Christian — it was unholy; and to touch the bucket in the well, for the same reason. They re- presented to me, most pathetically, that I was putting them all to great inconvenience and expense. The native Christians did not join in these objections; but they had never seen or heard of such a thing before, and could not believe that it would work : they doubted the windlass, the buckets and the yoke; but above all they could not see how a Christian could be made a water-carrier; it was perfectly unprecedented. The support, therefore, that we obtained from them was small indeed; and even the lad employed looked on himself as put to a very strange use. He could not say that the employment was not respectable ; for it has always been considered highly so. He could not plead that it was hard or unprofitable; but he knew that it was unusual, and that was enough to keep him from feeling easy in it. The experiment was con- tinued, however, and worked pretty well, till the boy abandoned my place to try his fortune in Calcutta. One more thing may be said : as far as an opportu- nity to learn their feelings has been afforded to me, I am led to believe that our wives would prefer doing their own house-work in America to living as they do in India, were there not far higher and holier motives than personal ease to keep them there. But to return from this digression. We had every thing to learn — language, facilities, customs, how to avoid being cheated, and how to escape doing wrong ourselves. Mrs. Warren, being still weak from her recent illness, required much of my assistance ; and 22 MISSIONARY LIFE the necessity of giving it was rather an advantage to me at that time: a certain part of the language was learned from necessity. Much of the time was spent in turning over an English and Hindustani dictionary, to find out the names of things, and how to frame certain phrases. The dictionary was a most miserable affair, often provokingly giving definitions out of which nothing could be made, and often misleading me by not properly distinguishing what are usually called synonyms; but still we were led sometimes, as well as misled, by it. Our perplexities, with a cook who did not know twenty words of English, and who talked to us just as if we knew Hindustani, were often most ludicrous. We shall never forget the way in which we learned the word bhul (mistake); and will tell it as a specimen of that which was occurring every hour. We had bought a piece of mutton for dinner, and handed it over to the cook. After a time he came running, with trouble in his countenance, and said he had made a bhul; adding a great deal more which I did not at all understand. The word bhul completely puzzled me; and, as it appeared that this must be the key to his talk, I went into a diligent search of it in the Hindustani dictionary, but lacked knowledge to find the word from his pronunciation. At last, after long labour, I began to listen for other words, to serve as starting points; and soon made out the words kuttd (dog), gosht (meat), and le gayd (carried away), which I knew before. Thus it became apparent that he had made the bhiil (blunder) of leaving the meat in the kitchen unguarded, and a dog had carried away our dinner. The struggles which we constantly made to get work done in the way in which we had been accus- tomed to have it done at home, were sometimes amus- ing, and sometimes distressing; and our success was very small. The little and numberless ways in which the servants sought to cheat us, the dirty habits and IN NORTH INDIA. 23 practices in which we detected them, and their child- ish helplessness in many things, all made U£ think, for a time, that we should never be able to endure them. But experience taught, and use reconciled, us at last. After our own house was purchased we went into it as soon as possible. The number and size of the rooms I have already mentioned, as well as the gene- ral character of the house. This had one peculiarity. Glass doors are generally considered a necessity. To these Venetians are added; or mats or quilted curtains are hung up against the doors; and occasionally the verandah is supplied with screens made from the stems of a very thick grass, or split bamboos. The pecu- liarity of our house was, that it had the Venetians, and no glass doors: we could not have light without wind, and its accompaniment of dust and heat. We carried our little furniture into this house; and perhaps it was better that the house was small. We had a tottering teak-wood dining table; twelve Indian chairs of tun, a wood resembling cherry; a rocking chair, and two painted chairs from Boston; a dressing-table and a study table, which were the halves of an old round table that I bought (too dear) for three dollars; a cheap set of camp-drawers, wash-stand and boxes. When furnishing ourselves with a bed in Calcutta we had also bought a spare bed. We were told not to do so; but our American notions of propriety were sadly shocked at the idea of having no bed to offer a friend, and we would buy it; but when we went into our house we found that we had no place in which to put the spare bed, and were obliged to sell it. We im- proved this furniture, and added to the number of ar- ticles, in the course of years, till we made our house tolerably pleasant. We had few places to visit, and our house was an important matter to us: we thought it our duty to each other to do all we could to make it a pleasant place to live in ; and that our children ought not to be brought up in unnecessary rus- 24 MISSIONARY LIFE ticity. Tins remark, however, is not intended as an apology for anything like luxury: at no time while we were in India would all our furniture, together with horse and buggy, have been estimated at so much as would have furnished some single chambers in this country. The floors were covered with coarse coloured cotton cloth, printed in imitation of a carpet. This cloth, when first put down, looks rather gay, and in a hot cli- mate is a good substitute for a carpet. But it is soon spoiled. The day that we removed from the hired house into our own, it rained violently for a short time, and the wind drove the water across the veran- dah, and through the Venetians, till it stood in pud- dles on Mrs. Warren's gayest new floor-cloth, which cost $3.50 for the whole room. A rustic candidate for baptism, whom we had made watchman to give him the means of living, was assisting us in moving our goods, and Mrs. Warren found him churning the colours out of the carpet in one of these puddles with his naked feet. The poor fellow stood trampling away, and saying, in a tone of sorrow, " see the water ! we never can live here without glass doors ! The Mission thought so too ; and accordingly we began to make glass doors for the house. For this purpose we hired a carpenter, who worked in our back verandah. His mode of working, and some anecdotes respecting his caste, will be interesting to my readers, as specimens of the state of things in that country. His tools were very scanty, and of the poorest quality. Two small saws, two or three chisels, a few bits, and a rod and string to turn them, a small plane, and a kind of adze, which had to do nearly all the work, with a few minor articles, are the usual kit of a Hindustani carpenter and cabinet- maker. There are differences in workmen, but the one I am describing was by no means the worst. W r ith his tools he spent more time in sawing out IN NORTH INDIA. 25 one bit of timber than twenty similar ones would have taken up in America. His plane was so small and poor that nothing was made either quite smooth or straight. As much of his work as could possibly be done so, was done with the adze : he held a rough stick slanting before himself by resting it in a notch made in a block that lay on the ground; and he then hewed slowly, taking off mere bits of shavings, till he had brought it to the shape required. All his work was done sitting on the ground, except when it had to do with the door-frames already fixed in the wall. Pieces of wood, on which he was at work with both hands, were steadied by his toes. It was a great trial of patience to see him at work : he did nothing well; and yet he did exceedingly well when we consider his tools and education. He could not do in a month more than a carpenter with us does in three days: but then his pay for the month was not more than a good American carpenter gets for three days. He never made two things alike : our doors were of such peculiar sizes, though all nomi- nally the same, that no one would fit another's frame; and no corner was a right angle, except by the merest accident. The rows of glass were far from running straight across the door, but were set up and down in anything but a fanciful manner. But after all, the doors kept out nearly all the wind they were intended to keep out. This man (and he is but a specimen of his class) had a great propensity to sleeping, and a small amount of faithfulness. If he fancied that I was busy, he would lie down beside his work and sleep, when he ought to have been at work, and had already been absent more than the usual time. I did almost every imaginable thing to break him of the habit: — threatened him with his discharge and with fines ; threw blocks of wood at him, taking care not to hit him, but wishing that he might think he had had 3 26 MISSIONARY LIFE great escapes; and reasoned with him, so far as a very scanty knowledge of his language permitted. At last, in an evil hour, I thought I had discovered an unexceptionable mode of awakening him, and making him cautious for the future, at the same time doing him no injury. He worked with only two pieces of cloth on him — a dirty white piece wrapped round his loins and tucked between his legs, and a red piece wrapped round his head for a turban. The weather was warm, and he was always bathing: so I thought he could not be injured by water. Accordingly the next time he was caught napping, I went into the bathing-room, a door of which opened into the verandah where he was lying, and threw a wash-bowl full of water over him. He got up and went about his work, after bathing at the well, and I heard nothing of it for three or four days. Then he came to me, saying, that he was in great trouble, as his people had suspended him from caste privi- leges, and would neither eat nor drink with him. The Hindustanis express these ideas by the phrase, "To stop his pipe and water." A friend of his, a great man of the caste, came to me to confirm the story. They said that the caste, having heard of the circumstance, presumed that the water had been used, or at least touched by me, and was therefore unholy ; and that some of it* had gone into his mouth ; though this he denied. They explained that, if the unholy water only fell on his body, he would only have to bathe in the river to be holy again ; but if it went into his mouth, he would have to fee the Brah- mans and feast the caste before he could be restored to communion ; and that this would cost about a hun- dred dollars, which I should have to pay. I learned that it really was both law and usage, that if one by any violence, or even by accident, injured any per- son's standing in his caste by producing ceremonial pollution, he should pay all the expenses of his IN NORTH INDIA. 27 restoration. They at first showed some signs of a pur- pose to insist that the water went into the man's mouth, in order to make me pay for a feast for them ; and the man himself would have been willing that this should be the end of the business, had he not said before witnesses, in the first place, that his mouth had escaped the deluge, and thus furnished me with a ground of defence in a civil suit for damages. I stood out, of course, that I would not pay the money. At last the caste agreed to refer it to my honour; if I would say that I did not think the water went into his mouth, they would restore the man. As I fully believed the mouth had escaped, I said so; and that was the end of the business. This taught me to deal carefully with caste for all time to come. Some years after this, when I had another carpen- ter, of another sub-division of the same caste, at work for the printing-house, he assisted me in making a bargain with some Brahmans, who lived a few miles from the city of Allahabad, for some thatching grass for the bungalow. The price was settled at so much a thousand bundles, and eight or ten bundles w T ere given by the Brahmans. as specimens both of the thickness of bundle and length of grass which they were to give. These specimen bundles were carefully locked up in a store-room till they brought the grass. When they brought ft, we found that not more than half of it was at all up to the specimens. These were produced, and I said that I could not^pay the full price. I called some Hindus, who were engaged in the work of thatching the house, and were well ac- quainted with such matters, and asked them what was to be done. The Brahmans agreed to leave the mat- ter to them. They decided that I ought to pay about nine dollars less than the whole lot would amount to at the full price. This sum I deducted from the price, and paid the remainder. I was sure that I was doing them no wrong, but rather was paying them too 28 MISSIONARY LIFE nruch. They murmured, and said they would have the remainder — -the full price agreed on at first. I asked them why they brought me such grass — why they gave such specimens if they did not intend to bring grass to answer to them. They said bluntly, that they had brought the specimens to induce me to make the bargain; and then had given as good grass as they could ; that I must be foolish to expect to get anything as good as the specimens given; and that they had unloaded the grass in my yard, and must have the money. I then told them they might go to the civil court with the case, and I would pay what- ever was decreed. They said no more to me. In a short time the carpenter came to me, and said that the Br&hmans were demanding the nine dollars from him, on the ground that he had introduced them to me, and assisted in making the bargain. I sent a servant to order them out; but all the Hindus about me joined in imploring ttiat I would do no such thing — something dreadful would happen after it. The Brahmans, they said, had agreed that if the carpenter did not pay the money, one of them should rip him- self up with a knife, and die on the carpenter's ac- count. There were three of the Brahmans, and they had been overheard laying their plan behind a wall: the youngest said that it belonged to him to die ; but the oldest said that he had lived tt greater number of years, and had eaten a great deal, and therefore he ought to be the one. And so it was finally settled: they were to make a formal demand, and use entrea- ties, threats, and all other means short of a lawsuit; and if the carpenter should hold out, the old man was to kill himself on the spot, and the carpenter would have to bear the guilt. No guilt so terrifies a Hindu as causing the death of a Brahman; and so confused are the ideas of the uneducated Hindus as to different kinds of causes, that they esteem the killing of them- selves out of spite to another as the most exquisite IN NORTH INDIA. 29 kind of revenge; because they fancy that all the guilt of their death is, in this case, transferred to the person on whom they may thus choose to lay it. The carpenter was thoroughly frightened. He begged me to give the money. I refused; and explained to him and the Brahmans, that if they chose to kill them- selves in an attempt to extort money unjustly, they alone would suffer for it. He then prayed that I would lend hirn the amount. I refused again, be- cause I thought it right to combat such mingled knavery and superstition. But all this did not, as I hoped it would, prevent the Brahmans from carrying out their purpose: they made a last solemn appeal to the carpenter, with adjurations and curses, telling him that they chose to practise upon him, because he be- lieved in their power and doctrines, and I did not. He broke down, borrowed the money, and paid them the last farthing. He lost it: for I never would pay it. I will only add some anecdotes, that will do some- thing to illustrate the matter of housekeeping in India, and also the character of some classes of the people. Shortly after we were settled at Allahabad, we had a cook, a Musalman, and a low caste Hindu bearer, as our house-servants. From time to time we missed various articles of clothing, but supposed they might have been mislaid during Mrs. Warren's illness, and postponed the search for them till she should be stronger. At length, when I had five hundred ru- pees, as treasurer of the Mission, in the house, and was quite aware how much had been paid out of it, I found the bag evidently too light; and on counting the money, found that one hundred and thirty rupees were wanting. The cook had no business in that part of the house, and had never been seen there. The bearer w r as the only person we could suspect. Being entirely puzzled as to how to proceed, I called 3* 30 MISSIONARY LIFE in the Thanadar. This is the head policeman of a small district. The man, in whose district I lived, appeared to be very shrewd. I thought, when he winked at me, and told me he would find some clue to the truth by his examination of the bearer, that his shrewdness, and tact, and experience would certainly be sufficient to find the money. On further examina- tion of our goods it was found that half of my shirts and many of our best articles of clothing were gone. This was a sad loss, and we never recovered anything. The Thanadar took away the bearer, and detained him three days, but was obliged to discharge him, as he could discover nothing on which to found a charge before the magistrate. I afterwards learned, to my great disgust and sorrow, that the Thanadar, during this time, had miserably vexed and tortured the poor man, in every mode that would not leave palpable marks, in order to compel him to confess. The bearer was turned out of our service, as we still be- lieved him guilty, though we could not convict him. In a week or two after this the cook asked for his dis- charge. I have forgotten the pretext, but that does not signify — he left us. Immediately after this he married a wife, though he already had one; and laid out at least a hundred rupees on an enlargement of his house, beside being known to live rather luxuri- ously, though before he entered our service he was in debt. Thus it became manifest to every one that he was the thief; but still we could get no legal evidence against him. On this occasion my Munshi greatly regretted the prevalence of English law and customs. He said that under any native government the circumstances, which were open to all, would be considered sufficient for a conviction; and that it was perfectly ridiculous to screen a manifest rogue because no one saw him take the money. He asked, with much pertinence, Ought the law to expect that a thief will take witnesses with IN NORTH INDIA. 31 him when he goes to steal? He said, (and the natives often talk in this way,) that English pro- cedure and customs as to evidence, are totally unsuited to Hindustan, and serve to screen offenders oftener than to punish them ; and are precisely fitted to make a nefarious conspiracy against an innocent man completely successful. As an example of this evil, I may cite a case which occurred under my own observation. A man was accused of having committed a bur- glary, aided by two friends, by breaking into a house and carrying off various articles, on Sunday, in broad day. The charge was proved by twenty-five wit- nesses, who all testified that they saw it, as they were sitting with the owner of the house. The assistant magistrate, a young man of very little experience, thought no case could be more clear ; and he sentenced the supposed criminal to imprisonment with labour. The matter was brought before the judge by appeal; and he directed the discharge of the man on the simple ground that the more eye- witnesses there were pretended to be of such an act, the more improbable it became — that he could not believe the accuser, with twenty-five able-bodied men with him, w T ould see his house broken open by any three men and not resist it ; and neither would any three men perform such an act in such circumstances. The natives all praised this decision, and said this was all the weight that ought to be allowed to direct evidence, when circumstances were against its proba- bility. Had the judge, as many would have done, considered every man's oath good who could not be convicted of perjury, the poor victim of a stupid con- spiracy must have served out his time in prison. The accuser, the accused, and all the witnesses in this case were Mohammedans. I ought to state, for my own good name, that after circumstances had shown that our bearer was not 32 MISSIONARY LIFE the thief that I had supposed him to be, I exerted myself to get him another place, and succeeded. One of my principal employments during this first summer was studying the language. The first teacher proposed to me was Patthras, [Peter] a native Cate- chist. He came to me two or three days after my arrival, introduced by one of the mission, and began to talk to me in Hindustani, as if I knew it already. I tried my very few words of his language, but we got on badly. At length I managed to ask him how he intended to make me understand him, as we had no language in common. He answered in Hindus- tani, " by the dictionary. " I did not understand the word that meant dictionary ; and after he had repeated it many times, with many contortions and increasing loudness of voice, as if emphasis would make me understand, he mustered up his English and said, " dissenherry" I was so stupid that this was unintel- ligible too, till he laid hold of the book, and told me this was the dissenherry. I commenced reading the gospel of Matthew with him ; but we could not go on together. His education had not been such as to exercise his mind at all, and he could not explain any- thing; he was fat and gross, and a little labour or heat put him almost out of his senses; and he was never punctual, but always disappointing me and making lame excuses. Beside this, I soon found that it would not answer to lay myself under any obliga- tion to him : he had already tried to borrow money from me, and to get me to do various things for him, which showed his greed most disagreeably. After making an unsatisfactory beginning with him, it was determined that I must have a better teacher; and it was fortunate that this change was made so soon: for I afterward discovered that he had allowed me to give wrong sounds to certain peculiar letters, and wrong accents, without correcting me ; and in a short time IN N0KTH INDIA. 33 longer bad habits would have been formed, which it would have been very difficult to get rid of. Patthras was by birth a Musalman, of Lucknow. He had been a soldier, and held some inferior mili- tary office, in the service of the King of Oude, at Lucknow — the splendid and corrupt — the Paris of India. Perhaps a worse school for the education of a man could not be found in the world than employ- ment about the court of Lucknow. The government is Mohammedan of the worst stamp ; the people effeminate and vicious beyond all European imagina- tion ; offices are always bought, and the best part of their income is made up of bribes and the fruits of oppression. Every man in office preys upon those below him. The office that Patthras held under this government had a nominal pay of about fourteen dollars a month attached to it, which was often long in arrears; while he was married to two wives, and accustomed to some luxury and show. He had there- fore become accustomed to cunning and rapacity, but was no worse than his fellows : probably was a fair average man for that place. Though I would not dare to say that he never was a Christian by convic- tion, yet it was evident that the leaven of his educa- tion remained, and continually fermented. As there is an English resident at Lucknow, to look after the interests of the East India Company's Government, and some assistants, besides some English and East India people in business, the Company keeps a chap- lain and surgeon there. Patthras became acquainted with some of these, and was led to examine Chris- tianity. The chaplain took him under instruction ; and, after he had separated from one of his wives, settling sgme little landed property on her, he bap- tized him. Thus he stripped himself of his little hereditary estate, parted with a wife of whom he always professed to be fond, and lost his commission in the army. He was looked upon at the time as 34 MISSIONARY LIFE quite a martyr ; and far be it from me to say that it was all rascality : he may have been sincere. But his latter course laid him open to the shafts of suspi- cion : it could be said that he had experienced the evils of bigamy, and was willing to give up one wife in order to live in peace with the other; that his land was not sufficient to support his family, and brought him little or nothing when he could not personally superintend it, and so was no sacrifice w r hen given up ; and that he hoped to be petted and made great by the English, which would more than compensate for the loss of his office. It could also be supposed that he was one who sincerely took up with the truth, but when called to suffer for it, was offended. His old corrupt education and habits, at any rate, resumed their influence. He became first luxurious again, and got in debt ; then, when dunned by his creditors, he made rapacious demands of his employers ; then cun- ning and falsehood, those invariable resorts of the weak and slavish, were taken up again ; then rage against us, for not satisfying his cupidity came on ; and finally apostasy, or playing fast and loose with both Christianity and Islam, was the last scene of his history with which I became acquainted. But it must not be supposed that Patthras was suffered to go to ruin in this way without the most strenuous efforts on our part to preserve him from a fall. He had been taken up by two gentlemen at Allahabad, who paid his whole wages, and set him to work under our Mission, and in the especial charge of Mr. Morrison. These gentlemen gave him an income that secured him and his family a better living than nine out of ten families of the same rank in Hindus- tan have ; and they looked after him diligently, gave him advice and encouragement, and befriended him in every possible way. They once paid his debts, and cleared him of all his difficulties, on his promise to live within his income for the future, and to ask no IN NOBTH INDIA. 85 more similar favours. When he again got into the same kind of difficulties, and to a greater extent, Mr. Morrison fully relieved him, after pitying him, instructing him, and doing everything that the largest interpretation of Christian obligation could demand. Patthras, as before, promised everything, but went on in the same course worse and worse. His creditors at length pressed him again. He promised falsely, and equivocated. He thought us severe, and told several persons of his troubles. The Episcopal chap- lain of the station, a good but weak man, thought he could manage him, and we consented that he should try. His two friends agreed to pay his salary into the chaplain's hands, and he agreed rigidly to see that Patthras's necessities were cared for, and to pay all that could be saved monthly to his creditors. Patthras consented to this arrangement; but before a week was over declared, quite falsely, that the chaplain was literally starving him. Pie told me such a pitiful story that I gave him some money; and when the chaplain heard of it, he was much offended at me for believing any part of the story. Patthras then quarrelled with the chaplain ; and about the same time came to me again, apparently labouring under all the excitement of a madman. He showed me the passage in the Acts of the Apostles about the community of goods ; he accused me of not obeying the command of Christ, in that I did not share my goods with him; he said that I saw him having need, and shut up my bowels against him. I treated his fanatical notions with all the forbearance that was possible, and calmly taught him what was right. When I explained to him that I did not think he had need, according to the sense of those words as used by the Apostle John, he became so thorougly enraged that the foam gathered on his lips. He said he could listen to a man no more, who could give such a selfish interpretation to Scripture ; and when asked if his 86 MISSIONARY LIFE own interpretation was not as liable to be considered selfish, he took a sudden and angry leave of me. A few days afterward he pretended some business at Lucknow, and got a fortnight's leave of absence from his employers, and never returned. This circumstance, coming as it did in the early part of my missionary life, distressed me greatly. And even now I cannot think of the case without sin- cere grief. The poor man must have been a most des- perate hypocrite all the time ; or have fallen into snares of the wicked one, that ought to excite our deepest pity. Whatever view we take of his case, it is one that causes sorrow. After Patthras ceased to be my Munshi, as a teacher of languages is usually called there, I en- gaged an elderly man, who had been the Munshi of many gentlemen. He was a Musalman, learned in Persian and Hindustani, and thought himself learned in many other things. He had various quips of logic, that he thought most profound and valuable; and fer- vently believed many most monstrous fables about natural history and science, that were vastly amusing. He was pliable, affable, polite, quick, shrewd, and very conversable. With his private character I had, of course, nothing to do, even though it could not be considered a matter of indifference to me; but there was no reason to suppose it very estimable. All that I know about it with any certainty is, that he was an opium-eater, and showed in his conversation a great deal of unscrupulousness as to morals, while vaunting highly his honourable principles. With this man I continued the reading of the gospel, and began that of some native works of fiction, which are thought most useful for teaching one the idiom of the lan- guage; but the greatest advantage was derived from talking with him. I undertook to teach him Chris- tianity, and our conversations on this subject were long and interesting. He helped me to words. He IN NORTH INDIA. 37 had acquired a perfectly wonderful faculty of seeing what word his pupil wanted, and would turn it up in the dictionary, and tell how to fit it into the sentence that was being framed, without at all interrupting the train of the conversation. Then he made me tell him long stories about railroads, telegraphs, electricity, chemistry, governments and customs in Europe and America, and "Nupaloon Boniparty," whom he thought almost a greater man than Alexander the Great — a decided stretch of belief for an oriental; for Alexander is the only person in Ancient History, having a connection with Europe, of whom the orien- tals now know anything, save as such knowledge is newly introduced along with English education. The Munshi sometimes told me tales, watching my coun- tenance to see where he needed to explain more fully. He set me right about the pronunciation of difficult letters, and advised me to walk up and down the ve- randah practising. Accordingly hours on hours were spent in this peculiar exercise — an excellent mode, amongst others, of acquiring a correct enunciation and intonation. After a few months passed in this way, I was obliged to discharge this man, in order to unite with Mr. Freeman in hiring one man between us both, from motives of economy. This man was a good teacher also; and, after ceasing to be Mr. Free- man's teacher, for many years was attached to the printing-house as Munshi and proof-reader; and, of course, he continued to give me occasional assistance in the language. This was a considerable advantage. We may well doubt whether there is not often an un- wise economy practised as to the expense of language teachers for missionaries. It is customary to dis- charge them as soon as they can be dispensed with, when it would be much better, in many cases, to re- tain their services for several years: the missionary's preaching and writing would often be incalculably the better for it, if he have a talent for language worth 4 38 MISSIONARY LIFE cultivating at all. A man has not learned to speak a foreign language when he can tell in English the meaning of what he reads and hears, and can be un- derstood when he speaks: there is something beyond all this. To speak effectively he must gain the power of speaking like a fluent native. A great deal of practice, and a scholarly companion to guide him, are both necessary to the missionary for this end. The Munshi last referred to was a much more se- date man than the former one; he was even severely formal in his outward manner. He was very devout and religious, and expressed so much concern to ar- rive at all that was true, that I often had great hope that he would be converted to Christianity. This hope was, for a long time, encouraged by his whole manner. He was mild and reasonable in discussions of religious points, and seemed deeply impressed with a conviction of certain deficiencies in the Mohamme- dan system. He often shed tears in our conversations when the love of Christ was set forth; and once told me that the Christian scheme of salvation was beau- tiful, perfect, and entirely worthy of God. But I at last discovered, with intense pain, that two things hindered his conversion. The first was spiritual pride: he could not be persuaded that he was not quite pious and righteous already. His zeal, devotion, and religious reputation were as great hinderances to his practically coming to the light, as open and out- rageous vice can ever be. The second hinderance was his love of women: Christian practice in this respect was not at all to his taste; and the license allowed by I stem was highly so. There was something extremely odd and disgusting in his sanctified appearance and his lasciviousness taken together; but he was proba- bly unable to perceive their incongruity. A pretty widow, whom he had kept in his house for some time, on the footing of supplementary wife, ran away with all the family jewels. He came to me with the de- IN NORTH INDIA. 39 tails of her crime, suffering great shame and vexation. I pointed out to hitn that this could not have hap- pened had his domestic relations been on the Christian plan, and told him that sin brought sorrow. He said he had not been sinning: he had taken the woman to keep her from being ruined by some bad fellows. "And her living with you was not the same kind of ruin?" He made no reply. Now I am quite aware that this account of my teacher may seem indelicate to some people. But I reply, to any such objection, that my object is to show the people and the charac- ter and operation of their religious notions; and that this cannot be done in any better way. I have men- tioned above a transaction that was considered per- fectly allowable and respectable by the society in which the Munshi moved. During this year our friend, the Rev. James Wil- son, was living not far from us. He was four years my senior as a missionary, and preached in Hindus- tani with considerable ease. He had a Hindustani service in a room where the orphan girls' school was taught. This service was regularly attended by me, partly for the sake of example, and partly to learn the language. This was of great advantage to me; for though at first I understood nothing, very soon some phrases became known ; then others ; then many words, which I did not understand, were looked up in the dictionary; idioms were noticed: in short,. a sort of preaching dialect became familiar to me, and assisted me in a way that the books I was read- ing would not have done. In the course of this season Mr. Wilson baptized an elderly Musalman woman. This was the first baptism of a native that I had seen, and I was greatly encouraged by it. My memory now goes back to this and some other occasions, and fixes upon them, as luminous points, with great joy. This first baptism; the first Hin- dustani communion at Allahabad; the opening of the 40 MISSIONARY LIFE church that we built there ; the finishing of the build- ings for the printing-house; the completion ' of the fund for buying our school-houses at Agra; and several other occurrences, show me that I have much to be thankful for. My studies during' this first summer were much interrupted by the sickness of Mrs. Warren. We were at one time afraid that her health would not endure the climate of India, even if she should sur- vive the first summer. But it pleased God to restore her, and still to spare her to return to America with me, after an absence of nearly sixteen years. Her illness was caused, no doubt, partly by the exposures of our journey, and by her sorrows; but I may as well state, for the warning of all who may be in a position to profit by it, that it probably was also caused by our mode of living during the early part of that summer. We had been obliged to contract a debt to the full amount of the price of a horse and buggy, and our furniture was most scanty. We therefore determined to live in the practice of the most severe economy ; and kept the table as low as possible, and avoided the employment of men for the tatti and pankhd. The tatti is a thin screen made of the fragrant root of a grass, and is used in a door, where, wetted frequently, it causes coolness in the house by the evaporation of the water, which is very rapid when the hot wind is blowing. The pankha is a large fan, usually hung in all India rooms, and swung by a rope that runs through the wall. The agitation of the air caused by it is very refresh- ing. These two means of mitigating the heat are universally resorted to by all Europeans in Upper India, where the heat is much greater than near Madras or Bombay, though the latitude is higher. The Government furnishes these articles in the bar- racks of European regiments; and this fact proves that they cannot be considered luxuries, but rather IN NORTH INDIA. 41 necessaries. The expense is not very great, because unskilled labour is exceedingly cheap there; but we thought it our duty to save it. This economy was unwise, because injurious. The medical man at length peremptorily ordered us to resort to the pankha. It may very likely occur to some reader to say, in substance, " How much better it would be if mission- aries would go out unmarried ! See how much unhap- piness, and even hinderance to this writer's proper work, resulted from his having encumbered himself with a wife/' If this objection to the marriage of missionaries possessed no force, it would not be worth while to answer, or even refer to it: it is just because it contains truth that it ought to be answered. Nothing is gained by taking up ultra-positions; there- fore let it be confessed that there may be men and cir- cumstances such as to make celibacy desirable. But generally, and especially in India, it is better that a missionary should be married. All the ordinary arguments in favour of the marriage of the clergy apply in the case of the missionary, and these it is not necessary to repeat. All the special objections to the marriage of missionaries, who are going to barbarous places, fail of their force, in a great de- gree, when applied to India ; because there medical assistance can usually be procured, and we live under a regular system of laws duly administered. The special reasons why a missionary to India ought to be married are as follows: — Our work there is regular, not admitting of much excitement, and often involves great trials of faith and patience. A missionary is often isolated from general society to a great extent; and if he have occasional invitations to the houses of English residents and fellow mis- sionaries, they can occupy but comparatively little of his time, leaving him generally the sole occupant of his house. If, in these circumstances, he becomes listless, languid and melancholy, there is not much 4* 42 MISSIONARY LIFE cause for wonder. It would be no small advantage to have his family about him, to produce a change in his ideas and feelings; and a good wife would incite him to keep on in patience and hope. The amount of the gentlemen's labour that ought thus to be carried to the credit of their ladies, no stranger to our work can conceive. It is true that now and then a sick wife causes the return of a missionary from the field ; but I am confident that if it were a matter that could be sifted by an impartial person, he would find that many married men remain in the field vastly longer than they would have done if unmarried; and that more men leave the work because they are not married, than because they are. I have known several bachelor missionaries, and have no hesitation in saying that, with a few happy exceptions, they were sickly, did not settle to their work well, and were not able to preserve that suavity which was necessary to their own and their associates' comfort; and, when some of them were afterwards married, they proved to be as hearty, steady, industrious and agreeable as any men. Some of these statements may be doubted, and the arguments may produce a smile ; but being deeply conscious that in them I am uttering great truths — indeed, that their greatness is exactly in proportion to their homeliness — I shall not be deterred from saying them. A second special reason for our being married is, that a single man cannot deal with the native Christian women as it is desirable to do. A wife's influence, example and instructions are requisite. What could I have done towards advising young girls from the orphan asylum, when first married to very young men in the printing- house ? Every person of any reflection can perceive how important it was to our new community that a woman should aid informing it. Another fact, to show that a lady should be present, is the absence of any proper sense of the value of chastity amongst the IN NORTH INDIA. 43 people. Even the native Christian women do not feel on this matter as American women do. The civilized ideas that have made unchasteness a special sin and loss of honour, have yet to grow up there as a pro- duct of mature Christianity; at present it is no more than any other transgression of the law in their esti- mation. This fact makes it peculiarly necessary that a Christian lady should be amongst them, to aid by her example and her precepts in forming a proper senti- ment on such subjects. A gentleman might, indeed, preach all that need to be said about this subject ; but no one but the missionary's wife can exert that unde- fined, often unrecognized, but most important influence that always, as it were, floats around, and is diffused by the true Christian woman — for, if the missionary is not married, no lady will be so situated as to exert this influence upon his people. And the absence of pro- per ideas, which is here referred to, places the unmar- ried missionary in danger. This, however, is a part of the subject to which I will only allude. Still another reason why missionaries should be married is, that the natives usually take it for granted that all single men are unchaste. They know so much of their own desperate corruption, that they consider purity impossible. CHAPTER III. THE PRINTING-HOUSE. When it was arranged that Allahabad should be my station, it was determined that advantage should be taken of my knowledge of the printing business to set up a press there. In the course of the history of this undertaking the reasons for it will sufficiently appear; and therefore it is not necessary to set them out formally here. This plan suited my tastes in some 44 MISSIONARY LIFE respects: I was fond of the press, and of that class of undertakings that are connected with it. It had been my intention once to make my way in the world as editor and publisher of a newspaper; and this in- tention had been laid aside when an overpowering sense of duty made me seek the ministerial office. Now, when something like my old propensity could be gratified along with the employments of my new calling, the prospect was very pleasing to me. I do not, on the whole, regret my course in this respect; though I at length became thoroughly weary of the amount of secular business that was involved in it. I still believe that the press was as important to our operations at that time as I thought it to be, and but little less so now; and that carrying it on is a busi- neso most honourable and useful; but the desire to preach and translate more than that employment al- lowed me time to do, induced me, two years before leaving India, to turn over the place to my successor very gladly. The Rev. L. Gr. Hay of Indiana, who was sent out to relieve me at my request, has charge of the press now. A medium iron press, three kinds of English type, and a considerable quantity of printing paper, were sent out with us. These went, with our baggage, to Allahabad by boat. It would have been well if I had remained in Calcutta some time, to learn the ways of Indian printing-houses, to find out what was wanting in my apparatus, to remedjr defects where there were workmen accustomed to such things, and to learn from our friends up the country what kind of work we should have to do, so that the necessary kinds of oriental type and workmen could be engaged at once. But a complete want of experience in these respects prevented all parties from knowing what to do. When we arrived at Benares we found that the missionaries of the Church of England and of the London Missionary Society, with some other friends IN NORTH INDIA. 45 of the cause, had formed a Tract Society, or were about to do so; and that, because there was no print- ing establishment that could at all do their work nearer than Calcutta on the one side (four hundred and twenty-five miles), and Lodiana on the other (nearly seven hundred miles), they had intended to set up a press for themselves, and as a beginning had bought a Persian and a Nagari fount of type. But they were encompassed with difficulties: they had amongst them no one who possessed any of the me- chanical experience that was requisite, and there were no workmen within their reach; the engagements of all the missionaries were such that no one could be found to take that efficient charge of the affair that alone could render it successful; they had neither press nor buildings; and above all, they had no money — the income which they expected their society to have, being by no means adequate to such an under- taking; for these reasons they proposed to me to buy their type, and thus enable them to give up their plan; and, as the type was what we should certainly require, we agreed to take if off their hands. This Benares movement is mentioned merely to show that such a press as ours was wanted in that region. At that time, beside our Mission press at Lodiana, there were only two presses in all the region north and west of Calcutta, and these were principally engaged in printing two English newspapers at Delhi and Agra. Since the establishment of ours a large mis- sion press has grown up at Mirzapore, a very large one at Agra, a small private one at the same place, a large newspaper establishment at Meerut, since re- moved to Agra, another large newspaper and job press at Lahor, and a smaller one at Benares. Be- side these, little lithographic presses have sprung up all over the country in great numbers, for printing Urdu and Persian books. These grow up like mush- rooms, and often fail like them too. About two 46 MISSIONARY LIFE years since there were seven at Agra alone. Not- withstanding this great increase of presses, ours has experienced no lack of work. This certainly shows that our press was needed when established ; and it also exhibits a great and gratifying improvement of the country in some respects. The languages and dialects in which we had to work, may as well be mentioned here, in order that future allusions to them may be easily understood. The language of Upper India is divided into two dialects, having mainly the same grammar. Some- times these dialects are distinguished as the Hindus- tdni and the Hindui, or Hindi. By these terms it was probably intended to make the first as belonging to the country at large, that is, to Hindustan; and the second as being proper to the branch of the peo- ple called Hindus. In these senses the terms are not inappropriate ; for the Hindustani is a sort of lingua franca — a language spoken more or less all over the country; and the Hindui is nearly confined to the Hindus of the north-west. But the more general dia- lect is more exactly designated by the term Urdu, which means the Camp, indicating the origin of it in the camp of the Persian-speaking invaders of India, where it was formed on the pure Hindui or Hindi. From the north-west it has been carried all over India, wherever the Musalman power extended. But the north-west remained its main field, and it has retained its beauty and power chiefly there; or rather has been more cultivated there, because this was the chief seat of the Musalm&n dominion. In this work, whenever I speak of these dialects in general terms, not intending to distinguish one in particular, I shall use the term Hindustani; but when the reference is to either especially, the terms Urdu and Hindi will be used. The difference between these two dialects consists mainly in the different sources from which their substantives were derived. In both of them the IN NORTH INDIA. 47 verbs and the particles, and the grammatical con- struction and forms are very nearly the same; but the Urdu takes the greater part of its nouns from the Persian and Arabic, while the greater part of those employed in the Hindi are either indigenous or San- scrit. Some, of course, are common to both. In addition to this, however, the Urdu often employs Per- sian constructions by way of ornament. A sentence, given in both dialects, will illustrate the peculiarity as to substantives : Urdu — Ai hamare Bap, jo dsmdv, par hai ! Hindi — Hae hamare Pita, jo swarz par hai ! English — our Father, who heaven in art ! The alphabet generally used for the Urdu is the Persian or Arabic character. In common parlance there is a distinction made between the Arabic and Persian letters, though they are identical in principle, the latter being only a more flowing and more easily written form of the Arabic. This character is very round and stiff; while the Persian indulges in more elongated strokes and more flourishing tails. In the Persian also, as being the character for ordinary writing, the forms ,of some of the letters are simplified a little. In Hindustan the Persian character is much more easily read, from its more constant employment in writing, than the Arabic, though the latter is much more plain; and towards Lodiana the people say they cannot read the Arabic at all. It is highly desirable to use the Arabic character in printing, instead of the Persian, whenever it is possible. The Arabic joins with tolerable ease; but the forms that have been given to the same letters, in the Persian mode of writ- ing, are such that it is impossible to join them in a straight line, and we are obliged to have compound characters, of two, three, and even four letters, cast together, in order to join them in the manner of manu- script, without doing which they would look badly, and offend the eye, by being against all rule. Ordi- 48 MISSIONARY LIFE nary readers may get a better idea of this matter when I state, that with three hundred boxes in a type- case we can print Arabic very well ; and that my first fount of Persian letter had over eleven hundred, and was still very imperfect. Printers will sympathize with me when I tell them, that the kerns, or letters that stood partly off the body of the type, were almost half of the whole number. These kerns project above and below the body, as well as on both sides. After a form went to press they were continually breaking down, leaving letters headless, or tailless, or without distinguishing marks, thus frequently changing one letter into another, and making a serious error. On one occasion, in printing the Book of Proverbs, the breaking of a slender initial letter made us say, "In the multitude of lions* there is safety" — instead of counsellors. This character is also a very wasteful one for printing: the lines have to be put at such a distance from each other, that a small book becomes a large one. For these reasons we always use the pure Arabic style of letter when we can. But, as this is very disagreeable to native readers, many efforts are made to do printing in the Persian letter. Lithography has been resorted to, and many books and tracts have been printed by it. This is more expensive than letter-press, and can never be an effi- cient substitute for it, except for tables, &c, and works of which but few copies are wanted. Further, the Persian and Arabic characters are both unfit for printing, because they contain no full system of vowels. They may be vowel-pointed like Hebrew, but this is so expensive that it will never be practised for common works. As a specimen of the difficulties that assail a student using this character * My Munshi thought this was all right enough. He said he supposed that Solomon had learned that the lions would politely wait for each other, so that the man would have time to escape! IN NORTH INDIA. 49 without vowel points, let us take a word of three radi- cals, say, z I m — forming a word in common use — zulrn. This may be read zalm, zalam, zalum, zalim, zilm, zilim, zilam, zilum, zulm, zulam, zulum, zulim. Most other words of three radicals may have all these pronunciations. Of course, use commonly enables us to perceive what a word really is; but it frequently happens that a reader cannot tell what the word is, till he has looked onward through the sentence, and learned it from the connection; and thus he some- times has to go back and correct the pronunciation. For this reason no readers are fluent save those who have had a great deal of practice; and it is usually a work of great difficulty to teach a boy to read even tolerably well. These difficulties had been felt before my arrival in India, and had caused many to adopt the plan of writing Urdu in the Roman character. Some dia- critical marks were adopted, that made this alphabet one of the most perfect that has ever been used. These marks, so far as they can be made intelligible to persons who are not acquainted with that language, are used in this work. The great reasons for using this adaptation of the Roman alphabet are — first, its economy of space ; no crowding will bring any native character used in India, into the same compass that this occupies. Printed in the smallest Arabic or Deo Nagri letters the Bible occupies two large octavo volumes ; while it may easily be put into a little more than half the same space in a good, fair Roman letter — and, if crowded as many English editions are, it need be no larger than they are. I once made a calculation of the expense of printing and binding five thousand Bibles in the Urdu dialect, in two different ways. It was proposed to print this number — one thousand of which were required for the use of native Christians, who could, with very few exceptions, use the Roman 5 50 MISSIONARY LIFE character, and four thousand were intended for distri- bution to other natives. These four thousand must be printed in the native character. It was thought by some that as there was to be an edition in the native character at any rate, we could not afford the expense of another in the Roman; but my calculation showed that the paper, binding and press-work, that would be saved by putting one thousand in the Roman character, would more than pay for setting up the type and reading the proofs of the extra edition. This calculation did not include the saving that would be made in the expense of transportation — not a small matter in such, and so large, a country. The second reason is, that there is, as already intimated, greater certainty of readily perceiving the meaning of that which is read. This mode of writing was promoted by Mr. Trevelyan of the Civil Service, by Dr. Duff, and by many others; but still it has met with most unworthy opposition. Some learned men disliked any change. There is a spirit of con- servatism in many excellent English minds, that seems to partake more of the nature of an instinct than of a product of reason. This conservatism is, no doubt, highly useful in many cases ; but it quite as often stands stupidly in the way of improvement. These men were supported by a host of others, some of whom were not learned, but desired to appear so, and therefore affected to despise the simpler and more certain alphabet, as if it were only a crutch for igno- rance and imbecility. Others had been accustomed to spelling native words and names, when they had occasion to use them in writing English, with vowels according to the English sound ; and were therefore op- posed to the sounds of the vowels in the proposed adap- tation of the Roman alphabet, which were continental. It was in vain to show them that the greatest of their own grammarians, Sir William Jones, and the great- est of the authors of oriental dictionaries, Shaks- IN NORTH INDIA. 51 peare and Yates, used this alphabet — it was enough that they were asked to adopt a new use of the vowels — they could see no reason for it. In the face of such an opposition the reform has made slow pro- gress, but it has not been abandoned. It is to be hoped that all Christians will learn to use this alpha- bet, so that books prepared expressly for them may not need to be put into the vastly more expensive shape; and it is certain that all such books are easily used by natives educated in English, whether Chris- tians or not. In this way this alphabet will supplant the others by degrees, till the country is at last deliv- ered from their burden. It will also tend to throw into the shade impure and mischievous native books. Beside definiteness and certainty in spelling, the Roman character also affords the opportunity to use capitals and italics, both which are entirely wanting in the native alphabets, as well as punctuation. Of course we cannot print tracts for promiscuous dis- tribution in this character, as we must furnish the natives with that which they can read. The Hindi dialect is usually written and printed in the Deva (or Deo) Nagari, the Sanscrit character. This is a square, bold letter, and very much better for printing than the Persian, though its vowels are placed above and below the line, and are trou- blesome; and it is too cumbrous for economical printing. Still it is plain, its vowel system nearly complete, and its general appearance good. Its chief characteristic is, that it is written under a heavy straight mark drawn along the top of the word, so that the letters seem to hang down from the line, as if strung upon it. There is a simplification of the Nagari alphabet, called the Kaith% which is much used in some parts of the country. It is similar in form to the Nagari, rather more expensive in printing, less definite in expressing sounds, and less beautiful ; but it is very 52 MISSIONARY LIFE desirable to use it in some places, because it is more extensively read. We were, therefore, obliged to have this letter, as well as those before named, in our printing-house. From this it will be perceived that we were obliged to have three kinds of type for printing the Urdti dialect — the Persian, the Arabic and the Roman. For the Sanscrit language and the Hindi dialect we have the Nagari and the Kaithi. Then English work had also to be provided for. All this caused the labour and care of commencing such an establishment to be very great. The work that a missionary has to perform in qualifying himself to use, and to superin- tend any kind of operations, in so many characters and dialects, is also not small. Shortly after our arrival at Allahabad, a friend, E. G. Fraser, Esq., assistant Secretary to the Board of Revenue, to whom we have since been indebted for many more, and more important favours, introduced to me a native pressman named Chand.* This man had left a situation not long before, and was about to go to Calcutta for employment; but, having married at Allahabad, was willing to remain there. I agreed with him to serve me for stipulated wages, and to put him upon half pay till our printing-house should be opened. This was the commencement of gathering an establishment about myself, that afterwards grew to something much larger and more important. This man continued in the press till I left it, and was still with Mr. Hay when I passed the place on my return to America. The next step was the taking of an apprentice. Any person who may have seen the little book, pub- lished by the Board of Publication, called " Poor Blind Sally," will be interested by the fact that my apprentice was her brother John, and will be glad to * The moon. The name of this luminary is masculine in Hin- dustani. IN NORTH INDIA. 53 hear that he was foreman of the establishment under Mr. Hay, when I last saw it. John and his sister had been separated from their mother, and left entirely destitute, by the most distressing circumstances, and had been brought up in our orphan asylums. We took John into our house, and made preparations for a very small beginning of a printing-house. By recurring to the description of our bungalow, in the second chapter, it will be seen that we had bathing-rooms at three corners. In one of these we opened the English type and put it in cases. John had never seen a type before, and of course nearly all the work had to be done by my own hands. We set up a stand, and John commenced his work, in the bathing-room, on a little catechism by John Brown of Haddington. The press was set up in one of the out-houses near the kitchen. A man, named Dillu, was hired to assist Chand. He was quite unacquainted with the business. Thus was commenced The Pres- byterian Mission Press*- at Allahabad. We could not expect to get on very fast when, with the excep- tion of an imperfectly instructed pressman, everything was to be formed by my own exertions. It was a small beginning ; but it grew, as will be seen in the sequel, till it sent forth the gospel to the farthest corners of that part of India. In a short time after this, a Persian character com- positor offered his services. He had been a Musalman, but now professed to be a Christian ; and he was, in- deed, a member of the Baptist Church at Cawnpore, having been baptized by a Mr. Greenway. His name was Husain Bakhsh. He was a sharp and active fellow, with sufficient learning for the post for which * This was the name of the Press, by which it was known to Government as registered. We wished, the name to suggest princi- ples. I was once or twice amused by noticing the repugnance of a good friend to this name. He was an Episcopal Chaplain, who was having some work done. Still he was not violent. 5* 54 MISSIONARY LIFE he offered himself, but not very well taught as a printer. He would have done us good service, however, had he not been a drunkard, quarrelsome, and dishonest. Under his instructions we made up cases for the Per- sian type. Let printers imagine my disgust and dis- may, when it was found that, instead of the one pair of cases, which each man has before him, in setting up English type, we had to put up two pairs, end to end, and also another case at each end, crosswise, on wings, in order to place all the sorts. We went on trying the type, and soon discovered that several necessary com- binations of letters were impossible with our single letters, and that there were no compounds for them in the fount, although we had already a most discouraging number of compounds : many could be made no other- wise than by the knife and file. We cut, and filed, and stuffed paper into the vacant places made by filing away a part of the bodies of some of the letters, and resorted to many other means of making the letters join properly. A job had -been offered to us which was profitable, and which I was exceedingly anxious to do, and to do well, as it was the first. Let me here gratefully record, that the first patron of the press was E. A. Reade, Esq., then collector and magistrate of Goruckpore, and who was still in India when I left, a member of the Board of Revenue at Agra. He gave us the printing of what were called DastaJcs, which are a kind of summons to be served on those who are in arrears as to land revenue. The prices then paid by the Government for public print- ing were such, that it was well worth while to take pains to secure it. The dastaks contained a little table work, for which we had no rules. Our only resource was either tin cut out with shears, or sheet copper wrought by a common blacksmith. The compositor was not competent to do anything that required re- course to expedients ; and my acquaintance with the language was as yet so imperfect, that it was with IN NORTH INDIA. 55 great difficulty that I understood what was required, or made myself understood. The cases were set up in the back verandah of the bungalow, and my attention was divided between John in the bathing-room, Chand in the outhouse, Husain Bakhsh in the verandah, and a sick wife in the house. But after several days' effort and experimenting, we were successful; the dastaks were pronounced passa- ble, and were printed. The labour and anxiety which I underwent in this thing were great, but the success was proportionately pleasant; and, beside this, we learned what were the chief deficiencies of our type, and were enabled to send to Serampore for the sorts most necessary. About the same time we discovered that one of the founts of English type brought from America was imperfect, not having a single b or c in it. We got these made at Calcutta; but they never stood very well with the other letters. After a few months the compositor, Husain Bakhsh, got drunk, quarrelled with" another native Christian, accused him of stealing a shawl from him, and made such a tumult, that we were obliged to part with him at once. I have never heard of him since. Here it may be said, that some of our greatest troubles have arisen from unprincipled Musalmans, who professed to become Christians, when they had no religious con- victions whatever. They are forbidden by the Quran to drink anything that intoxicates ; and, though they would have no conscience about it, yet the Musalman community would expel them for notorious indulgence. For this reason we have found that some of them have professed Christianity, supposing that they might then drink without reproach or danger. Occasionally we have learned, that the hope of an increased income has also induced men of this sort to join us. Generally these things are discovered before a man can make a profession of our religion; for missionaries are usually very cautious. But sometimes they have been de- 56 MISSIONARY LIFE ceived. Chaplains, some of whom are mere formalists, have baptized men that have been nothing but a grief and scandal ever afterward. The following is one instance. We had a man in our employment, in the press, for some time as an inquirer. He had a wife, not origin- ally a Musalman, but of a very low caste of Hindus, who had become a Musalman in order to marry him. They had three or four children. The man urged me to baptize them all, which could not be done, as he gave very little satisfaction by his progress in Chris- tian knowledge, or by his conduct. He met w r ith an accident while drawing water from a well, by which his cheek bone was fractured; and he was laid up for three months, before the ugly wound could be fully cured, and then it left a bad scar. I paid his wages all this time, as if he had been at work, and procured him the best of medical attendance. After he got well, and urged me more and more to baptize him, I told him that it could not be done at present; that he did not seem to me like a man on whom had passed any spiritual change. On this he said he would leave me, and go to Lucknow, his native place. He was accordingly paid up, and we parted amicably. On his way to Lucknow, he called on my friend, the Rev. W. H. Perkins,* at Cawnpore, and wished to be baptized by him. This was declined, for the same reasons that had made me refuse. • While with Mr. Perkins, he was talking about me, and hinting that I was no better than I should be; when Mr. Perkins asked him what he meant. He answered that I was a most gross and violent oppressor; and that, if anything went wrong in the printing-house, I made nothing of throwing the mallet at any one's head, or striking him with any- thing that came to hand; and added: "Look here, sir," laying his finger on the scar on his cheek bone. * Now of Hampstead, near London. IN NORTH INDIA. 57 "Did he do that?" asked Mr. Perkins. The man nodded, and said, "And for no fault too." Mr. Per- kins at once doubted, and dismissed him ; and after- wards took measures to ascertain whether there was any truth in the story. Both he and I, though by that time by no means inexperienced men, were rather astonished at the magnitude, malignity, and causeless- ness of the fabrication. This man and his family were shortly afterwards baptized by a Chaplain at Lucknow, and, as I was told, while displaying no more of the spirit of Christ than before. Another anecdote, relating to our troubles from unprincipled Mohammedans, will be found in the fourth chapter. Dillu, the assistant pressman, was an example of making a profession of Christianity for gain. He was a Musalman, and lived with a Musalman bad woman, to whom he had never been married. They professed to be penitent and asked to be baptized. Though this request was not granted, they were married in Christian fashion, by the Rev. James Wilson, before my arrival at Allahabad. After long trial the wife was proved to be no better than before, and Dillu was convicted of stealing paper from the printing-house, and sent to jail. They, not having been baptized, fell back into the ordinary Musalman community, but not before they had done us a damage by being con- nected with us. There was a singular case connected with this busi- ness of DiHu's. The paper, which he stole from the press, he sold to three or four persons. He was con- victed, and sent to jail for three months. One of the receivers was also sentenced to one month's imprison- ment. Another, when he heard of the search that was being made for the paper, undertook to burn that which he had — about five quires. Two of my ser- vants, the house-bearer and the printing-house watch- man, who were on the look-out for this man, caught 58 MISSIONARY LIFE him burning the paper, and snatched it away from the fire when only a corner had been burned. They brought it to me at once. I examined it, and knew it to be some of the stolen paper, because it was Ameri- can, and there was no more like it in that region. It was night when it was brought; and as nothing could be done about it before the next day, we placed it in one of the common rooms of the house, intending to proceed in the business in the morning. But when the paper was examined in the morning, it was evi- dently not the same — some native paper had been burned in a similar manner, and substituted for it. Of course the receiving of stolen goods could not now be proved. The man had, during the night, bribed my servants to allow the exchange, so that he might escape. On questioning the servants about it, they, of course, denied all knowledge of the exchange. One of them boldly declared that there had been no ex- change at all. The other, when asked, replied in the indirect and twisting style of true Hindustani cun- ning, u My lord, what can I say?" A hundred times I varied and repeated the question; and as many times he managed to give an indirect or evasive an- swer. He had baffled me so long, that it became to me a singular trial of skill between us, and I was determined to have a direct answer; but "How should the slave know anything about it?" — "Thatw^as dam- aged by fire, and this is damaged by fire; and does not that indicate they are the same?" These and similar replies were all I could get. At last I put the question, " Do you think the paper has been changed ?" and demanded that his answer should be a simple and unqualified yes, or no. I explained to him, and threatened him with instant dismissal; and at last, when under the influence of the most abject fear, with the greatest reluctance he whispered No. Now this was the answer he meant to give all the time. It was not fear of lying that made him evade a direct reply; IN NORTH INDIA. 59 but it was the cunning, equivocating spirit, which is ingrained in almost all that people, that cannot make up its mind to walk straight forward in either right or wrong. It was necessary to build a printing-house, and we had not money sufficient to do it at once, as it ought to have been done; but we did the best thing that our circumstances allowed. We put up clay walls, and made floors as described in the second chapter, where bungalows are spoken of. The roof was in- tended to be more safe as to fire, and more durable, than a thatch, and was made of tiles. These tiles I was advised to join with lime, and did so at consider- able expense; but the first rainy season brought all the lime to the ground. At first only two large rooms were built, and a small store-room for paper. Afterward two more rooms were added — one for the oriental type, and one for miscellaneous purposes. The floors of these rooms were soon broken up by the constant trampling upon them; types dropped upon the ground were commonly lost; and various other reasons combined to cause us to make the floors over again, using flag-stones. Our windows were only Venetians, and did not keep dust from the cases. But this was the best that we could do with the means at command. To explain some of my mishaps, it is necessary to tell how lime is made in that part of India; and this will not be uninteresting to those who are accustomed to that which is so entirely different. Some lime is made from stone dug out of quarries, and burned in the same manner as in America; but this is very ex- pensive, and is used only for whitewash, or the finest parts of work. The lime for common use is alto- gether different. It is made from kankar. This is a kind of limestone found in clay strata (I will leave scientific men to say how) in irregular nodules, rough and jagged, much like some specimens of what is 60 MISSIONARY LIFE called bog iron ore. This is -collected, and a kiln made of it in the following manner. First a layer of cow-dung, which has been kneaded and made into flat cakes and dried (called kauda), is placed on the ground in a circle. Then a layer of the kankar is placed upon it; then another layer of the kauda, and another of the kankar; and so on, each layer being a little contracted, till a mound of five feet in height is raised. This is then set on fire, and the burning of the kauda bakes the kankar sufficiently to make the greater part of it slake. There are several modes of cheating in this business. First, the man who sells the kauda may cheat, by mixing clay or ashes with it when it is made. The clay, of course, adulterates the lime; for the kankar is so small that the whole mass, ashes and all, must pass for lime — there is no sepa- rating them. Secondly, the kankar, being dug out of clay, may be allowed to have a great deal adhere to it, which ought to be shaken off; and even lumps of clay may be put in on purpose. Thirdly, after the lime is burnt, and perhaps sold by specimen, ashes and clay are mixed with it. As this lime always has a dirty colour, it requires a good deal of experience, and a practical knowledge of the tests applied to it, to detect these adulterations. I had unsuspiciously bought lime that was chiefly clay and ashes, and therefore the cement of my roof became mud, and the floors soon became dust. I have said that there was one room in the print- ing house for miscellaneous purposes. The press for smoothing printed sheets was in this room. This reminds me, that at first we had no such press, and used a washerwoman's smoothing iron when sheets must be smoothed. Various other odd jobs of work were done in this room. But one of the main pur- poses that it served was that of church, or chapel. In it we held the Hindustani worship on the Sabbath for a long time. It was not convenient; and the IN NORTH INDIA. 61 appearance of worldly business, presented by the standing press and piles of paper, was unfavourable to the feeling of sacredness, that ought to be assisted by all circumstances in our public worship. At length it became too small for the congregation, and we were compelled to provide another place, which will hereafter be described. At an early period we built a depository for the tracts and portions of the Scriptures that we printed. It was a small room of about twenty feet square, and attached to the bungalow. After about two years this was found to be too small, and was taken away. When it was built, none of us had any notion that it would ever prove too small. Such are the disadvan- tages of having to feel one's way in everything. Instead of it, we then put up a long building on the north side of the yard, near the house. This con- tained a small room at one end for the safe keeping of the mission tents and other apparatus used in itinerating. Next to this was a room of about forty feet by twenty, which was the proper tract and book depository. At the other end was another small room, in which the bound books of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and of the American Tract Society, were kept for sale. In this room we had our morning family worship in Hindustani. The greater part of the native Christians attended this exercise, and our heathen and Mohammedan servants also, whenever they could be induced to do so by anything short of compulsion, which we thought it not right to use. The walls of this building were of burnt bricks laid up with lime. Experience had taught me how to buy lime ; and this wall is not likely to break from the weakness of its materials. The back wall has no windows except narrow ones close to the roof for ventilation. Each room has a large door in front, and there are glass windows between them. The front and one end are protected by a verandah, cov- 6 62 MISSIONARY LIFE ered with tiles, and supported by slender octagonal stone pillars. The bricks are painted red, and the lime between them white, so that the appearance is very neat. The roof is flat. It is made by first lay- ing beams across at short intervals, then covering them with flagstones, and over them making a cover- ing in much the same way as floors are made as described in the second chapter. The depository, and the new printing-house which will be mentioned below, were built in this manner, because of two great dangers to which books, or any- thing perishable, are exposed when they are to be stored throughout the year. The first of these dan- gers is leakage. A more perishable roof might let through a stream of water, which would do great damage. Beside this, it requires such constant re- pairs that it is not so cheap in the end as one that costs a greater original outlay. The greater danger, however, is from the white ant. This little insect is ( one of the greatest plagues of India. It is somewhat larger than the small black ant in America, but nearer the size of that than of the larger. It is soft and watery — a finger placed upon it crushes it with the greatest ease without rubbing it at all; and yet, weak and delicate as it is, it bores through or consumes everything softer than a scone; destroys immense beams in the roofs of houses; strips the dry and corrugated bark off the largest trees; comes up through hard lime floors and attacks what- ever is placed upon them; enters a box, and perhaps in a single night, leaves you nothing but tatters and a quantity of clay; bores through the foot of a book- case, and eats to the quick a whole shelf full of books in a few hours. They always live in the ground; and some experiments, which I made upon them, con- vinced me that if their communication with the ground be interrupted, they will cease their work, and scatter away, unless they can re-establish a similar road to IN NORTH INDIA. 63 head-quarters. The reason of this is, that they always cover themselves, whenever they emerge from the ground, with wet clay, which soon becomes dry, and possesses considerable tenacity. They make with this an arched passage, wide enough to pass each other in it, wherever they go; and whenever they reach an article they intend to eat, they cover it over with a sheet of this clay, under which are numerous arches of this kind. In these they use their terrible mandibles with incredible speed and dexterity, filling up with the clay any space they may thus make va- cant. In this way it often happens that a painted beam of timber, the outside of which they will not eat because of the poisonous quality of the paint, and which therefore externally appears to be sound, is found to be a mass of clay held together by the tougher bits of wood, that the little devourers either did not choose to try their teeth on, or left to brace their work. They make their way up through the walls of a bungalow to the height of thirty feet, and eat the grass of the thatch, filling up the space left with their honeycombed masses of clay, to be brought down into the rooms in streams of mud by the first heavy rain that falls, unless previously discovered and removed. Any article left carelessly on the ground over night is very likely to be taken up riddled in the morning. A straw, left on the ground in this man- ner, will be pretty sure to be replaced, before the next day, by a line of clay, forming a covered path. From all I can learn of them they do not seem to be of the same species with the African white ant — at least they do not build ant-hills like them.* A friend once told me that they were the same, and built their houses above ground when climate, water, and other circumstances were different from those of the plains of India; and that he had seen these ant-hills in the * One of Parley's works falls into the error here alluded to. 64 MISSIONARY LIEU tract of country lying along the foot of the Himma- laya mountains. But when I recently rode through a part of that same tract, I satisfied myself that this was a mistake. I saw what I at first took to be their hills. They stood up four or five feet high here and there in the forest; the rain had guttered many of them into various angles, and left pinnacles standing up, so that often they presented no bad model for the exterior of a Gothic castle or church. But when I examined them, hoping to see the interior arrange- ments of a tribe, they proved to be but the ordinary work of the insects over a stump, which they had de- voured. For, when a forest tree is cut down, they leave the stump till it is at least partially dead, and then build over and eat it. It is supposed that the instinct of covering their work with clay is given to them to protect themselves from being destroyed by birds. To preserve our books and paper from being destroyed by these insects, it was necessary to make the buildings as perfect as possible, and to resort to various plans to keep the insects at a distance. If sheet-iron be placed under the feet of a book-shelf, they will build across it, and climb the leg. We have to apply tar, or set the feet into vessels of oil. The shelves must be placed at a distance from the wall, or the ants will reach them by building out pipes of clay from the wall. These pipes are sometimes found as much as eight or nine inches long. From time to time additions were made to the establishment, both of men and apparatus. A Per- sian compositor, and one for the Nagari, were got up from Calcutta. A second and larger fount of Nagari type was procured, as well as a small fount of Arabic, with vowel-points. After a time, as our business increased, a new fount of type did not cause such a sen- sation as to be noticed particularly. We were pre- pared for, and performed, printing in Arabic, San- scrit, Urdu, Hindi — the two last in two characters IN NORTH INDIA. 65 each — and in English. We bought a small fount of Greek, and made one of Hebrew, and executed a work containing a great deal of both. The first tract printed in the Arabic letter was in the Urdu dialect, entitled "A'quibat ki babat" — On the Future State. The first in the Nagari letter was in the Hindi dialect, called "Nicodemus, or The In- quirer." Both these were written by the Rev. James Wilson, then senior missionary at Allahabad. The first thing printed in the Urdu-Roman was a transla- tion, by Mr. Wilson, of Gallaudet's " Child's Book on the Soul." Thus Mr. Wilson had the honour and privilege of giving their first employment to three parts of our apparatus. The constant breaking of the Persian type and the Nagari vowel-points, and various deficiencies which were continually coming to view, kept us sending to Calcutta for sorts. My patience was nearly worn out; and John C. Marshraan, Esq., of Serampore, at length advised me to have a punch-cutter and type-caster of my own, saying that from long experience he was quite convinced we could never carry on our work in the oriental alphabets without one, at such a distance from a type-foundry. Allahabad is five hundred miles distant from Calcutta by land; and in those days a steamer took nearly a month to get up the stream. This caused delays that were disastrous, and induced me to engage a man through Mr. Marsh- man, and to get moulds and other apparatus for cast- ing type on a small scale. This foundry turned out for us, from time to time, all the oriental type which we required. It made a fount of Arabic type of a size a little larger than that which we had before; a large quantity of Nagari, on which, before I left the place, we had printed nearly half of a new Hindi translation of the Bible, chiefly made by Mr. Owen of our Mission, and the printing of which was left for Mr. Hay to complete; a larger size of the same letter 6* 66 MISSIONARY LIFE for head-lines, &c; a fount of Hebrew, for a work on Scripture proper names, intended to aid translators in securing uniformity of spelling; and many other things. Two young men, who had been in the Asy- lum, were taught to cast, and employed in this work after they were married. The Hindu man, whom we procured from Calcutta, would not teach these boys to cut punches. He used to make a great mystery of this part of his business, utterly refusing to be seen at his work. In order to bring him to com- pliance, I hired a Bangali itinerant engraver w T ho came along, and set him to cutting punches. He had never tried it before, but soon succeeded very well; and under his instructions Joseph, one of the above young men, went to work. When the regular man saw that we should succeed in getting punches without his aid, and that we should soon be able to part with him, he listened to my threats of dismissal, and consented to teach Joseph. We were pretty well under weigh, in this respect, when I left Allahabad; and on passing it again in 1853 I found that Mr. Hay had carried on my scheme, and that Joseph had acquired a good degree of skill, and learned a trade that makes him a most useful man. The printing-house gradually grew, the workmen improved, and the means of doing all that was desir- able were constantly accumulated, till my separation from it. The work done at it was superior to that of other presses above Calcutta, until other establish- ments were induced to adopt improvements. The press gathered about itself a congregation of more than forty native Christians, some of them converts, and some from orphan asylums. Constant efforts were made to work in all the Christians who could be procured, that w T ere at all fit for the employments offered, in place of the heathen and Musalrnans, who were necessarily employed at first. It afforded facilities for employing inquirers. But its direct IN NORTH INDIA. 67 usefulness, in furnishing tracts and Scriptures for distribution throughout the country, is what is mainly to be looked at. It has printed works for this pur- pose to the average amount of fully three millions of duodecimo pages annually. A large portion of this work has been of the nature of tracts to set forth Christian truth, or to show the untruth of heathenism. We published several editions of each of the single Gospels, of the four Gospels and Acts bound together, of Luke and Acts, of some of the epistles, of the Psalms, Proverbs, and of Genesis and first twenty chapters of^Exodus. For a more particular account of our labours in preparing and publishing works of various kinds, see the seventh chapter. These tracts and books are scattered amongst all missions, whether of our own Board or of other societies, from Dinapore and Tirhoot to the Panjab. They have been distri- buted in journeys, at fairs, and at the mission sta- tions, till they have been carried all over Upper India, and the effect of them has been felt in some of the most secluded villages in the remotest corners of the land. The press has also caused the writing of books by affording facilities for publication. It is with the surest conviction of its truth that I say, that many of our most valuable treatises would not have been written or translated, had not this press been in existence. When we come to the chapter on preach- ing, it will be seen that the missionaries have much time when the climate does not allow them to be out of doors, even if they had strength enough to be engaged in preaching all day; and that the nature of a great deal of our preaching is such that it affords us leisure for the composition or translation of books. Therefore any instrumentality that brings this part of their time into profitable use is most valuable. This the mission press did to a great extent. We had at Allahabad an orphan asylum, which 68 MISSIONARY LIFE has already been incidentally mentioned. It was formed at first principally from children, whose parents perished in the great famine of 1837 — 8. This famine prevailed over the region on both sides of the Jumna river, from above Allahabad to the region of Delhi, causing a terrible destruction of life. The Government and private individuals did all that was possible to alleviate its horrors; and, amongst other benevolent efforts, much was done to collect and feed children whose parents had died or deserted them. Many of these children were after- wards reclaimed by relatives; and hundreds more were handed over to various orphan asylums, that were formed in connection with various missions. A large asylum was formed for girls at Cawnpore, under the Mission of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. A large one for boys was formed under the Church Mission at Benares. Our own, for both boys and girls, were formed at Futteh- gurh and Allahabad. There was another large asylum for both sexes at Agra; beside some minor ones at different places. Had it been possible to preserve the lives of even half of these unfortunate children after receiving them into the asylums, it would have caused us to have now much larger nominal Christian communities; but they came so debilitated and dis- eased that the greater part died, although attended to most kindly and assiduously. It was a most melancholy spectacle. The greater part of some parties of them died in a very short time, and of the remainder the majority did not survive to reach mature age. The number of people that died of star- vation and famine-fever during the prevalence of the scarcity, great as it was, probably did not nearly equal those who died slowly afterward in consequence of disease and debility contracted then. The female part of the asylum at Allahabad was then under the care of Mrs. Wilson ; and after our IN NORTH INDIA. 69 arrival Mr. Morrison made over the boys to Mr. Free- man. The boys were all being taught the elements of a plain education in their own language; and it was intended to bring up the promising ones for teachers. Some • of the boys were dull, and not capable of being easily fitted for any literary employ- ment; and it was highly desirable that they should be taught some manual occupation, by which to sup- port themselves. At the same time many of them were so young, that, to have taken them at once to the press, would have made it necessary to set up something like another orphan asylum for them there. For these reasons it was thought best to have the book-binders work under Mr. Freeman's charge, and the boys do all the folding and sewing. This plan was adhered to till nearly all the boys, who were em- ployed in this part of the work, were married and left the asylum, and Mr. Freeman himself left the country to visit America, when the bindery was removed to the press. We had sometimes one, and sometimes another native as head binder; but no one was satisfactory. They work, as I have already said carpenters do, always sitting on the ground ; and all their processes are most clumsy and slow. The results, also, are far from satisfactory. We made up apparatus like that used in Europe and America, and strove manfully against their prejudices and habits. Yet the vis inertiae of such workmen is such as people in America cannot conceive of. They never attempted an improvement that was suggested to them till they were forced to it; and never were forced to anything of this kind without spoiling more or less work or material. Their wages were not great. We paid the best Hindu binder we ever had only seven dollars a month; but the work they ihrned out was dearer than that done in New York by men who made two dollars a day. Had it been practicable, it would have been cheaper to send our 70 MISSIONARY LIFE binding to New York to be done. This part of our establishment I could not bring into a satisfactory condition ; but I left it to Mr. Hay with a Christian foreman, and several Christian workmen, who were improving. Amongst the last things that were done under my superintendence of the printing establishment was the building of a new house for it. The perishable character of the original structure has been spoken of before. The new one is built in the same substan- tial manner with the depository before spoken of. It has a large press-room, with a store-room for paper attached to it; a larger room for compositors; and a fine bindery. There is also a small room for an office for proof-readers, and many other conveniences. The foundry is in a room in a corner tower, so isolated by thick walls that danger from fire is avoided. This was built without exceeding the allowances for the press; and we were enabled to do so by taking in job- work. The practice of doing job-work was necessary for another reason. Having to keep men for printing several different characters, our allowances would not keep us at work all the time, and it was necessary to have other work to employ the people a part of the time; because they must be paid regularly, or they could not be retained. It is true that this arrange- ment causes the superintendent a great deal of merely secular w T ork. Very little help could be obtained from the people on the establishment as to proof- reading, except in the native dialects — and even in these their want of accuracy was often visible. Their education in English w T as so defective that they could never be trusted for a single word. The compositors would read manuscript, if quite plain ; but if not so. they would put together whatever they thought tm letters looked like, often making the most impossible combinations of letters, both amusing and provoking, IN NORTH INDIA. 71 -which they did not suspect to be other than good English words. Mrs. Warren was my assistant in proof-reading; and I should often have been over- whelmed with business had it not been for her help. It often happened to me, that correspondence on business, the superintendence and proof-reading of job-work, and business connected with the treasurer- ship of the mission, took up two-thirds of my time. For this reason there ought to be a lay superintend- ent of the printing establishment, if the proper per- son could be procured. He might have charge of the secular business of the mission generally, and be immensely useful. But, though the press did hinder other things that might have been done, I neither repent nor regret my connection with it; it has been so useful an agent in our work that it would be wrong to be sorry for having been employed in it. Had I not had charge of it, probably I might had more to do with Sanscrit and philosophy, and been more useful than I have been in some of the higher branches of missionary labour, that w r ould both have been more pleasant, and more esteemed by the public. But such a sacrifice, if such there has been, ought to be lightly regarded. He who has been furnished with a useful field of labour by the Lord of the harvest, and allowed to occupy it so long, has every reason to be thankful. The question may be raised, how long will it be necessary to carry on such establishments as mission presses? The answer must be, till some of the native Christians can take them off our hands. They are necessary now for various reasons, especially as affording employment to the native Christians. But if any of our Christians should prove to be such busi- ness men that they can take the presses over, and gradually pay for them, doing our work and employ- ing our people, it w^ould be better to transfer them, and so gradually to disconnect the missions from 72 MISSIONARY LIFE secular business. This, however, may not be practi- cable for several years to come. CHAPTER IV. CATECHISTS: THEIR TRAINING, CHARACTER AND USEFULNESS. As the plan of this work is not so much to give an account of my own labours, as to take occasion from them to give information as to the working of our mission, and the character of the people, the subject above named is brought in, although I have had no more than an ordinary share in this part of our work. It is unnecessary to take much pains to explain at length the importance of having native helpers in a mission, because this is generally pretty well under- stood. It is easy to perceive how they may be made most efficient agents amongst the people of their own countries; and how important their office is as a step towards a native ministry. Our mission at Allaha- bad made early efforts to secure the services of such helpers. Our choice, however, was confined to few men, and it was hard to find native Christians who were well educated, fluent, and of satisfactory char- acter. Although we have helpers there, who are such indeed, and a comfort and joy to us, yet some of our main trials were connected with the training and employment of this class of men. And as this book is written to gratify the reasonable curiosity of the Church, and to lead her members to sympathize with, and pray for, their agents in foreign lands, it will be the object of this chapter to show what a catechist is IN NORTH INDIA, 73 intended to be and to do, and what are some of our experiences connected with them. Generally each mission, and frequently each mis- sionary, trains his catechists as he may be able, with- out following any plan laid down by the whole body; in fact, each does the best he can, according to his circumstances. In the beginning this was the way in which we were obliged to go on. Every missionary needed somebody to aid him in reading in the streets, and in the work of distributing tracts. In the hot and dusty towns and villages of India very few men can speak in the open air, in the midst of various noises, more than half an hour at a time — few even so long. Yet it is often desirable to hold a crowd of people longer. In this way it becomes necessary to have a native reader, who can read aloud the tract or portion of Scripture that is to be talked of, and can also speak under the care of the missionary. And when the talk is over, and tracts are offered to those who can read, he can afford great assistance in ex- amining applicants. For these purposes men were so necessary that many missionaries were compelled to accept the services of those who would have been deemed unfit for such an employment where a greater field of choice existed. In this way it happened that all degrees of catechists were employed: boys from school, who were only allowed to read to the people; some, a little more advanced, who could parrot a few trains of Christian argument and exhortation, which they had been taught; and some, who had an educa- tion, and could talk and argue, from the stores of their own minds, with more or less ability. Our missionaries felt this state of things to be undesirable; and at the meeting of our Synod at Agra, in 1848, on the second day of the session it was Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to report a scheme for regulating the qualifications and licensure of catechists; and that Messrs. Warren and Janvier be the said Committee. 7 74 MISSIONARY LIFE At a subsequent session this Committee reported a scheme, a part of which is as follows : The Committee appointed to report a scheme for regulating the qualifications and licensure of catechists, reported. The report was accepted, and with a few amendments was adopted, and is as follows : 1. That in the opinion of your Committee a greater degree of uniformity in the qualifications of catechists is highly desirable; and as we suppose, a feeling of this kind exten- sively prevails, and on it the action is grounded, which has brought the subject before Synod: 2. Your Committee would therefore recommend that the fol- lowing attainments in learning be required of those who shall hereafter seek the office of catechist : (1. ) The ability to compose with facility and general cor- rectness in one of the native languages or dialects— that is, the Urdu, Hindi, or Panjabi, writing it in the native character. (2.) A full understanding of, and capability of using, the Romanizing system now prevalent in our missions. (3.) The knowledge of an outline of Scripture History. (4.) The difference between the Mosaic and Christian dis- pensations. (5.) The knowledge of an outline of Church History. (6.) The same of Didactic Theology. (7.) The same of General History, Ancient and Modern. (8.) The same of the principles of Interpretation. (9.) And that the Presbytery should strongly recommend to every candidate the acquisition of the Persian or Sanscrit language. The scheme thus adopted by the Synod also pro- vided for the oversight of candidates, their examina- tion, and their licensure by Presbytery. This was a very fair beginning; but it is to be feared that the same causes that kept catechists from being properly trained and tried before, still operate to some extent; and that the Presbyteries have not yet been brought to take this matter up with that perseverance which alone can bring about a proper state of things. One reason of this is, that our Synod has failed to meet according to its adjournment. Distance, expense, and the inconvenience of leaving our stations, when there are so few to carry on so many ordinary opera- IN NORTH INDIA. 75 tions, are the usual reasons given for not having a meeting of Synod; and at particular times there may be private reasons, affecting individuals, equally operative. But notwithstanding these reasons the Synod ought to have met, and seen that the scheme as to catechists, was carried out as well as some other things that required attention. It is no discre- dit to us as individuals to say, that we needed the influence of Synodical control. Present convenience is always operating to make us postpone and modify some things; and men will not act in accordance with a system, without control, as steadily as they would under its influence. If they would so act, then Synods could be everywhere dispensed with. If it were determined that Synods should meet, and each Presbytery were instructed to arrange matters so that some of its members should attend, and unite this object with a preaching tour, all that is necessary might easily be done. The home duties of absentees could be temporarily discharged by their brethren, and a part of our office (that of Evangelists) might be in more active use. It is certain, however, that something has been done towards carrying out this scheme; and the catechists, no doubt, will improve year by year. If some central institution could be established, in which all the candidates for this office could be gathered, and taught together, according to a scheme approved by the Synod, the much desired object of a higher and more uniform education would be secured. If at Agra, which is nearly central to our stations, there were always three or four picked men fixed, they could take charge of this institution in addition to their other duties. This would be the completion of the general scheme, of which our high-schools at Agra are a part. There might be two departments in the school — one for candidates for the ministry, and one for mere catechists. It is probable that 76 MISSIONARY LIFE the high-school at Agra may produce some candi- dates for the higher department, as well as the native churches. The catechists would be much more likely to be regularly taught in such an institution, than they are at present, and could be practised, as they are now, in labouring with the missionaries. This would save a great deal of labour. Many missionaries are now employed in giving desultory and perfunctory instructions. The teachers of a theological school could both relieve them, and teach more systemati- cally. At present, also, every man uses such books as he can procure, and of proper ones there is a great lack. While we have no central institution, indi- viduals will have different opinions about what books should be prepared ; and without union nothing will be done. But the central institution would lead to efforts to supply this lack, which would, doubtless, be successful, and give as much satisfaction to all as the nature of the case admits. On the other hand it may be said, that there are many reasons for training catechists at their several stations. In this w T ay more may be raised up. If all were to be at the expense of sending their candidates to the seminary, and supporting them there, it may be supposed that fewer would be taken up. Each candidate might also receive more personal attention, and be more employed in preaching, if each were under the care of a separate station ; though the many engagements of the missionaries would render the personal attention somewhat doubtful. There is no doubt that a seminary could not combine all its own advantages with those of more private training : a comparison of the two modes should be made; and that chosen which offered the greatest facilities for accomplishing the end. And it would not be neces- sary to send every candidate to the institution- — some latitude might be allowed to the Presbyteries in this respect. IN NORTH INDIA. 77 When the catechists, as a class, become well edu- cated and gentlemanly men, and exert an influence oa native society, visiting and being visited by their Hindu and Musalman neighbours, we may expect them to be very useful — perhaps as much so as European or American missionaries. We have seen something of this; many native gentlemen now visit them, and prejudice against them is wearing away. At first they were, of course, regarded as renegades, and often they have been called on to endure cruel contumely and scorn ; to be the subject of wicked slanders and reproaches; and to be persecuted to any degree that was in the power of men who had not law on their side. A catechist, labouring with me, has been assailed in my presence with charges of having forsaken his ancestral faith for the sake of high pay and sensual allurements. This catechist was working for eight dollars a month, supporting a wife and two children on his pay, and living in such a manner that all his life and arrangements could be easily seen; and his assailant called him a mercenary dog, and said that it was publicly known that he had thirty-five dollars a month, and a woman in addition to his wife. The man bore this abuse very well. The only sign of impatience which he displayed was to answer, " You Musalmans are accustomed to make converts by such means; so it is not much to be won- dered at if you suppose Christians make them in the same manner." His counter accusation was so true that nothing more could be said. I added an invita- tion to the slanderer to come and see our place, and examine into all our affairs. Lately the natives have slowly come to perceive that there may be such a thing as a native having a sincere conviction of the truth of Christianity ; and they generally treat the catechists with great consideration. It has already been said that a catechist is em- ployed to assist the missionary to read and distri- 7* 78 MISSIONARY LIFE bute tracts and Scriptures, and to speak when lie can. His duty also is, when his qualifications are above the lowest order, to go out by himself when the missionary cannot go. As I was employed about the press I could not go out every day. I very much wished to do so; but other duties often made it impossible. I therefore made constant efforts to keep my native assistant going without me. But this is very discouraging work for a native man. They are neither so successful in obtaining hearers, nor so respectfully treated when alone as when a European is with them. My first catechist was not very fluent, and of no very commanding aspect ; and thus was not so well listened to as to make his work attractive. It was with some difficulty, for these rea- sons, that he could be induced to work alone. Still a great deal is done by the catechists in this way. They may not be able to gather a crowd around them, as the white man almost always can ; but they get into conversation with a few. They may often sit down with some of the people, and discuss some point of truth. If they can do nothing more, they will keep in circulation the bruit of a religion offered to the people's acceptance. It is also usually their duty to visit the vernacular schools, and give the boys instruction in the Catechism, and exhort all who may be around, and aid the missionary in his work of teach- ing religious truths to these schools, which he also visits. Another of their duties is to assist the mis- sionaries at the melas, or fairs. Still another is to accompany the missionaries on their preaching tours. If he be a man of sufficient learning, he may act as the missionary's assistant in literary matters. Babu John Hari and Munshi Mirza John Bez, catechists at Alla- habad, were of great use to me in my literary labours. They assisted me to revise a translation of the Con- fession of Faith and both Catechisms of our Church, in Urdu. The translation was made by the Rev. IN NORTH INDIA. 79 James Wilson, and would not have needed much revi- sion had it not been made on the principle of a free, rather than a close, rendering of the original. It was determined to bring it closer to the original, and at the same time to preserve the Urdu idiom. Any one who has been engaged in translation, knows the difficulty of such a work. These two men were long engaged in it with me. We often used to labour one, and sometimes several hours over a single sen- tence. Mirza, who is something of a poet, used to turn my prose translation of poetry into Urdu verse, in such works as the Urdu translation of the Dairy- man's Daughter and the Young Cottager. Hari has translated the Indian Pilgrim and Pilgrim's Progress into Urdu. His knowledge of English is sufficient to do so, except that he occasionally requires assistance in a single sentence. We have long felt that when we should have a sufficient number of faithful catechists, we ought to plant them in the larger towns around our mission stations. At Allahabad we often talked of several towns, at distances of ten to twenty miles from the station, at which it would be desirable to place cate- chists, to act both as schoolmasters and preachers. Another part of the plan would have been, to have one of the missionaries frequently visit these places. This was not carried out, because we all thought that we had no men, who could be spared from the station, that were fitted to work out such a scheme. After my departure from that place it was tried by Mr. Owen; but his agent proved not to have the neces- sary stamina and skill. Some later attempts of this kind have been made, which seem to be more success- ful; and when our native assistants become accus- tomed to the idea of personal responsibility, these attempts will be still more successful. We must take the risk of failures, or keep our helpers under such surveillance that they will fail to acquire indepen- 80 MISSIONARY LIFE dence and strength of character, or a spirit of enter- prise. Without doubt we must prepare for, and execute some such scheme as this, if we would thoroughly preach the gospel through our districts. Missionaries should be set apart to the superintend- ence of such circles of catechists, and the means should be provided of travelling amongst them all the time when the weather permits, and of making flying visits to them throughout the hot season. After these general remarks, the reader may like to see some facts, connected with the catechists, intended to illustrate our joys and our sorrows that arise from this source. Some of our native helpers read English. This fact will show the propriety of my generally concealing names; though to do so will render the anecdotes less piquant. Shortly after my settlement at Allahabad, we received a convert from a high caste of Hindus. He could read very well; and after a short course of instruction, was set at work under the care of the Rev. J. Wilson. He learned readily, and spoke fluently; and I have seen very few men who appeared more zealous, or more willing to work in the sphere appointed for them. At the great fair at Allahabad, 1 have often admired the patience with which he bore contradiction, the mildness with which he answered objections, and the versatility of talent by which he adapted his subjects and manner to the ever varying circumstances around him. On one occasion, for example, he was holding an argument with a Brahman, involving some points of their philosophy, when the Brahman suddenly uttered some sharp sar- casm, and followed it with the cry, " Come, brethren, let us leave this infidel to himself. Victory to Mother Ganga!" He said this with a tone of authority, and moved away at once, thus giving an impulse which a Hindu crowd is very likely to obey; and they all followed him, leaving the catechist stand- IN NORTH INDIA. 81 ing with an unfinished argument in his mouth, and a half dozen boys staring at him. After only an instant's pause, he began, in most simple language and with winning sweetness of manner, to say, "Dear children, if these grown men despise the news of salvation, w r hich we bring to them, do you listen to what Christ says to such as you: 'Suffer little children to come unto me, &c.'" And he went on with the children till another crowd of men were gathered about him, when he changed his manner, by saying, "But this message is not to children only; it much more concerns you, who have not so long to live as they." And thus he introduced a most appro- priate address. This man married a girl from our orphan asylum, simply because she was the oldest girl in it. She was stupid, and of a bad disposition ; and he was ear- nestly advised to avoid her ; but he would have her, saying that the Bible taught us not to despise those of low degree. In this matter the effect of his educa- tion under the miserable social system of the Hindus was very visible; he had no notion of the importance of his wife's moral and intellectual character to him- self. He married her, and it was not long till her sordid disposition exercised a bad influence upon him. He became depressed and spiritless. Then, for the purpose of qualifying himself for theological discussions with the Hindus, he read the Ramayan, a mythological poem of the Hindus, and carried it too far; for he neglected the Bible for it. He began to study medicine in the Hindu and Musalman methods, fancying that he should some time make his fortune by it. We tried to reason and laugh him out of this, but to no purpose ; and it was not a matter for eccle- siastical, censure. We at length noticed a consider- able flagging of his zeal and energy; but he accounted for it by saying that he was not quite well. At length, on one occasion, he displayed a strange forgetfulness 82 MISSIONARY LIFE of Bible history; and, as it was in public, he was angry at having been found out. Examination was made into his habits and state of mind ; and it was found that he had not read the Bible for a long time, and had forgotten many facts of its history ; and that he had almost ceased to pray. He was more and more angry at all efforts to set him right. About this time he was directed to go out with Mr. Owen on a short preaching tour, and refused, unless a horse were furnished him to ride. Mr. Owen told him that he should move but four or five miles a day, and should himself walk. The man answered, "You can ride when you please, and walking may be a plea- sure to you; I consider riding a luxury, and will not go out unless you give me the means to ride. Indeed, I am not bound to go at all ; I have worked here ten years, and ought not to be expected to work any longer. Give me a pension, and let me lie still the rest of my life." At this time he was about thirty years old. We reasoned with him, and did every- thing that could be done; and everything made matters worse ; an evil spirit seemed to have got full possession of him. At length we suspended him from his office and pay, because he utterly refused to do anything. The same day he removed to the city, and began to talk against us. After about a month he went to Lucknow, and entered upon a negotiation to turn Musalman. Not suiting himself there, he wandered nearly all over North India seeking employ- ment. After more than a year he came to us, and tried to negotiate; but was unhumbled, and we could not accept him. He again wandered about, and in one way and another caused much scandal — more by his gross defection from the spirit of Christianity, however, than by any personal vice. At length, after nearly two years, he came back, and made all the professions of penitence that could be desired. At this time he professed no more than he did on his IN NORTH INDIA. 83 first return; but his manner was much more satisfac- tory — there was much evidence that his heart felt the confessions which his tongue uttered. He was res- tored, and put at his work again, under closer super- intendence, and on less wages. He has since worked quietly and steadily; but his energy and zeal have not reappeared to any great degree. We hope that he is "a brand plucked out of the fire," and that he will continue useful; but our high expectations of him are in the dust. This story compels us to serious reflection. What could have persuaded this man to act in this mad manner?" Either the great adversary must have had some special hand in it, to hinder our work, or the catechist must have been insane. But however it be, let us, in all confidence, even in the darkest hour, say, "they that be with us are more than they that be with them." In the third chapter of this book mention is made of the fact, that some Musalmans join us because their co-religionists will not allow them to drink intoxi- cating liquors. We have had experience of this in the case of one who, for a time, was with us, preparing to preach the gospel. During the Afgan war a clerk in one of the English offices brought a young Afgan into Hindustan with him. The Afgan professed to be convinced of the truth of Christianity, and out- wardly embraced it. As often happens, there was much in his conduct to encourage, mixed with many inconsistencies. On the whole we had good hope of him. We taught and admonished him, and prayed with him. The blemishes in his character were mainly such as attach themselves to an aspiring and noble mind. We therefore had patience with his occasional manifestations of pride, and with his constant desire to have more income and to be treated like a great personage. By degrees he became dis- contented with us, went to Calcutta, and sought for a 84 MISSIONARY LIFE place, without finding any person to patronize him as he desired. Shortly after it became quite evident that his notion of Christianity was, that it would allow him to take wine genteelly after dinner, marry some pretty Englishwoman, and sink the Asiatic in a poor imitation of the Englishman. He got some patronage, until his character had become so much known that he lost the confidence of all Christians. He became Per- sian interpreter to a German prince, who was travelling in India ; was dismissed from his service for drunk- enness and defalcation; and afterwards I heard of his death as a drunkard. We must, I suppose, look on his case as one of unmitigated hypocrisy. We were certainly not to be blamed for receiving his pro- fession of Christianity ; and we did our best to retain him with us. We never perceived that there was any duty which we had neglected to perform towards him, and had nothing to reproach ourselves with in the matter ; but it was a sad trial to see him ruined. Let us turn to something more pleasant. A few years ago I wrote for the New Orleans Presbyterian an account of one of our catechists, a part of which shall be inserted here, without further comments. "My friend is something more than forty years of age; though he has no means of telling his age with exactness. The date of his baptism is known; but the age at which he was baptized is not known. This may sound very strange to people in America; but the fact is, that very few of the natives of this coun- try take any pains to remember the ages of their children. I have repeatedly known mothers to be unable to tell whether their infant children were six, or eight, or nine months old; and if they forget so soon, how wide may not their guesses be from the truth after the lapse of years. A very respectable man, as to station, and education too, has told me that he was about so high (holding his hand up to indi- cate how high,) at the time of the first siege of Bhurt- IN NORTH INDIA. 85 pore ; he knew, because his father was in the army then; but he could not remember, within five years, how long ago that siege took place ; and this was all he knew about his age. Some families keep in the house a string for each child, tying a knot in it at every recurrence of his birth-day; sometimes they become neglectful ; sometimes the white ants eat up the strings; and sometimes a knot gets tied in the wrong string, and inextricable confusion super- venes, and so the account is lost. Poor Robinson Crusoe made a mistake in his notches, and could never ascertain his Sabbaths with certainty, and how much less can ages be kept in mind by a custom so very liable to interruption ! The salgirah (annual knot) is rarely tied after the mother's death. u The parents of Hari were originally Mohamme- dans, from the North-west of Hindustan. Being in Dinapore at the time that 'man of Grod,' Henry Martyn, was chaplain there, they made a profession of Christianity, and were baptized by him. Here I will not lose the occasion to make a remark, to me exceedingly interesting. H. has often told me that from all he can remember of his parents, they were probably nothing more than mere nominal Christians; or at least but very weak and imperfect ones, making no impression for good upon his heart, either by their instructions or example. But they sent him to a Christian school, taught him to go to church, and thus at least served to introduce him into the ways of Christianity. The character of native converts is often very unsatisfactory; but here we have an example of great improvement in the second generation. The church ought to be encouraged by this. "For several years Hari attended the school at Dinapore, till his parents both died, and he was left absolutely alone in the world. He had learned a catechism, the commandments, creed, &c, but remem- bers no religious impressions at that time. 8 86 MISSIONARY LIFE " Being now a young man, with some knowledge of English, he went to Calcutta to find employment. In this he was not successful. But he formed an acqaintaince with a Mohammedan teacher, who allowed him to hang about his house, and to learn Persian in his school in every way he could, and thus gained his favour so far that he supported him about three years, during which time he acquired a good knowledge of the Persian classics. His teacher often sought to induce him to turn Mohammedan, but the grace of God enabled him to resist the temptation. His worldy interest would, apparently, have been greatly promoted by doing so at this time; and he rather wonders now why he did not; but he attributes his preservation, as he ought to do, to the preventing grace of God, though he was not at the time con- scious of the influence of the Spirit at all, and felt no concern about his soul — supposing, indeed, that he was as good a Christian as any. " After leaving his Mohammedan teacher he obtain- ed a place in the office of the Adjutant of an Infantry Regiment, and then became an accountant of the officers' mess in another regiment. After he had left this employment, on account of some disagreement with the officers, he lived at Benares, where he had left the regiment, "from hand to mouth," writing English letters for natives, assisting them to keep their accounts with Englishmen, teaching a native gentle- man's sons English, and the like. During this period, of several years, he hardly ever attended church, and did not know the essential doctrines of Christianity at all — at least did not understand nor feel them. "At length a native catechist, belonging to the mission of the London Missionary Society, found him out, and took him to the Hindustani chapel. There he was engaged by the mission as a teacher of Hindustani, and received instruction as to religion. He remained in the service of that mission, in various capacities, till about three years ago. The IN NORTH INDIA. 87 truth seems to have affected him gradually. From his own account it seems that his self-righteousness left him by degrees, and he was brought to see his sinfulness and misery; but at the same time, the remedy was applied, and he was brought to accept of Christ in a way altogether different from his former mere wearing of his name." After stating the way in which he came into con- nection with our mission, and that he was under trial for licensure, having studied Hebrew with me, the following is added: " Hari's character is distinguished by gravity, earn- estness, hope, simplicity, a want of confidence in himself, a shrinking from contact with evil, either in things or persons, which w T ould anywhere highly dis- tinguish a Christian man; and here, among the pol- luted, cunning, selfish, hypocritical, and dishonest people of this country, this character shines with dis- tinguished light. His mind is of such a character that he can more fully use a limited education than any other man I ever saw. His strong common sense secures him from all pedantry, and from the mistakes into which another might easily fall. I trust him with the entire management of my Bible class. He is the peace- maker, the arbitrator, the father of all my establishment. He is my 'cabinet council,' and prime minister." • Another of our catechists has a singular history. He is the son of an Englishman, formerly a civil officer of the East India Company, and a Musalman woman. He was brought up a Musalman by his mother and her friends, till he was a young man, and educated in the Persian language and literature, receiving such instruction in science and philosophy as the Indian Mohammedans have current amongst them. His father was dead; but still his slight remembrance of him, and a prepossession in favour of the English, caused him to be discontented with 88 MISSIONARY LIFE his standing as a mere native; and ^e went to Benares, to see if he could not gain some advantage by joining himself to the English. An Episcopal missionary found him, trained him, and finally bap- tized him. He afterward served another mission as a catechist for several years; and finally joined us, accompanied by his mother, of whose conversion he had been the means, and who since has died in our communion. This is one of the most dignified, polished, and gentlemanly men of my acquaintance. He has the good taste to wear the graceful costume of the East, and to continue in the use of the oriental manners, in which he was brought up. His language is most polished Urdu, and his eloquence as a speaker is seldom surpassed. I have known a crowd of Hindus so carried away by his eloquence, when showing them the excellencies of God in Christ, compared with their deities, that at the close they shouted glory to God. He is most useful in cultivating the acquaint- ance of native gentlemen, carrying on discussions with them, and exerting a good social influence. Once an old man, named Hari Das, came to me in search of employment, and told me the following extraordinary story, of the truth of which I after- ward satisfied myself by such inquiries as I could make. I relate it here, because it brings out a good many points of native character, as well as some of the dogmas and practices of the popular religion ; and, whether true or not in all its parts, the story is just as good for this purpose: it might happen amongst the Hindus at any time. He said that while quite a young man he became entirely dissatisfied with the ordinary practices of Hinduism: none of them satisfied his conscience, or seemed likely to secure him a righteousness, on which he could depend. This is so common a thing that we often refer to it in preaching to the Hindus, showing IN NORTH INDIA. 89 them that they are always ready to do some new thing, because they have never found an object on which their hearts can rest. Hari resorted to all the ordinary forms of worship, and practised them zeal- ously and abundantly; but they did him no good. He then performed all the ordinary pilgrimages. It was interesting to hear him describe what advantages he was led to expect from each, and how he was utterly disappointed by all of them in succession. Then, on the advice of his spiritual guides, he renounced the wife to whom he was betrothed, and became a jogi — a kind of religious beggar — and gave up all hopes as to the world. He had been told that he should find peace in doing so; but found none. When he had been several years engaged in this way, he arrived at a station where there were English officers residing — a kind of country town. Here he met a Brahman, to whom he unfolded his tale of sorrows. The Brahman told him that he had a Thakur [Lord,] who could do every thing for a worshipper in the way of spiritual enlightenment and help; that this Thakur was in a temple near the native town ; that the worshipper must give a certain fee to the Brahman, feed some faquirs who lived at the temple, offer certain flowers, fruits, &c, to the idol; fast and watch in the temple; bathe, pray, &c; and then the idol would speak to him, and reveal the secret of obtaining righteousness and rest. Hari Das went through all the ceremonies; and, to make all sure, hired the Brahman by an extra fee personally to attend him, to secure him from making anj^ error in his performances. All were completed the third day in the morning; and the Brahman told him to sit still and watch the idol till noon, and Tha- kur ji would answer him by that time. But noon passed without bringing any answer, and Hari- went to the Brahman and complained. The Brahman said that since the Thakur had not been pleased to attend 8* 90 MISSIONARY LIFE to him for his sacrifices and his prayers, nothing now remained but to abuse and scold him till he would answer. So the poor devotee sat down to this addi- tional task. He called the Thakur all manner of bad names, as he had been instructed to do; he accused him of being a cheat, taunted him with want of power, and threatened him severely. All this did no good. At last Hari Das worked himself up to a real pas- sion, through his indulgence in abusive language. He then said to the idol, "I begin to believe that you are no Thakur at all, but only an empty, ugly stone. There you sit, looking always the same. I make you offerings, and you cannot look pleased. I pray, and see no signs of your hearing. I curse you, and give you dirty abuse, that would make a gentleman crazy. I blacken the faces of your mother and sister in a way that would stir up a dead man; and there you sit with that eternal grin on your face, that makes you look like a monkey. If you do not answer at once, I will break your face with this stone. Do good, or do evil, and that immediately, or I will prove myself the better Thakur." And when the idol still did not stir, Hari in a rage threw a large piece of stone at him, and broke him into many pieces. His devotions, and especially his curses, had brought a large crowd of Hindus around the temple, who were looking on with much curiosity. Now they rushed on him with horror and rage. They did not care for his reproaching the idol: this they all do. But to offer violence to a god — that they did not expect, and could not bear. He would soon have been torn to pieces by them had there not been a station of Musalman police officers at hand. They rescued him; but could not preserve him from the Hindu mob otherwise than by carrying him at once to the magistrate, who was an English gentleman. Into his office the mob rushed pell-mell, pushing on Hari with the police officers, shouting Murder! murder! help! help! The Brahman also IN NORTH INDIA. 91 presented himself with a basket, containing the broken idol, and charged Hari Das with the murder of his Thakur. The magistrate at first thought that Hari was charged with the murder of a Rajput, who are also called Thakur; and asked what Thakur had been killed. The whole matter was soon explained, as neither party made any difficulty about the facts. The magistrate then asked to have the body of the deceased handed up for inspection, and they placed the basket on the table. He stuffed his handkerchief into his mouth, to prevent an explosion of laughter, and gravely looked over the ruins of the idol; and then told the assembly that it was a difficult case: the accused did not deny the killing of the Thakur; but still, as there was no blood in the basket, it might reasonably be doubted whether the Thakur had ever been alive; and, if it had been alive, whether such injuries would kill it. In consequence of this doubt he would postpone the case till to-morrow, and in the mean time would consult the judge, and learn how the law should be applied to such a crime; and they might come at ten o'clock and hear all about it. He would shut up Hari Das in the jail. Accordingly he did send him to the jail; but in the evening rode over, called him out, gave him a rupee to buy food, because he had used all his means in worshipping the Thakur, and told him to be off as soon as possible, or he should not be able to protect him. Hari Das walked twenty miles that night, and never heard how the magistrate and the mob settled the affair the next day. This circumstance caused him to reject and renounce every form of idol worship. He took up with pure deism, but obtained no more satisfaction from that. He then determined not to wander about as a jogi any longer, but to secularize himself again; and ac- cordingly entered the service of an English indigo planter as a clerk. This gentleman's establishment was at a distance from any English station; and a 92 MISSIONARY LIFE Serampore Baptist missionary was accustomed to enjoy the hospitality of the planter when out on preaching tours in that district. At this place, Hari Das heard the gospel for the first time, and says, that he at once perceived that it was just what he had been so long feeling after. After a time, both the planter and he were converted, and were baptized together. Until this gentleman's death, Hari lived with him ; after which he laboured as a catechist in various places. But during his long wanderings, he had acquired what may be called a predisposition to vagrancy. So long as his first patron lived, this was overmastered by his attachment to him ; but afterward he could settle in no place — something always occurred to make him discontented. A second bad habit was that of smoking g&nja, a preparation of the intoxicating hemp. Nearly all the Hindu faquirs practise this; and they often suppose the ecstacy produced by it to be reli- gious feeling, and smoke it more and more. They esteem the reveries of this intoxication to be divine inspiration. Hari Das was a slave to this habit ; and his early patron had not taken due pains to point out to him the evil of it, or to bring him off from it. It was some twenty-five years after his conversion when he came to me. He brought good certificates, and asked for any employment that would give him bread. I examined him, and was delighted with him. He knew all Chamberlain's Hindi hymns, and many more, and sung them well to native airs. The tears would roll down his wrinkled cheeks, when singing or talking about Jesus. With the consent of the mission, I took him as a catechist. He preached in a most affecting style. He was sent out twice with loads of tracts and gospels into the large towns near Allaha- bad, and I had reason to believe that he distributed them, and preached faithfully. During the middle of the day, when at home, he often came into the bunga- low to play with my little boy, then about four years IN NORTH INDIA. 93 old, talking to him about Jesus, and singing Hindi hymns. The child was exceedingly fond of the old man, and would leave any other play to run and nestle down by him, and hear him talk and sing. After a few months, however, he took a turn of smoking ganja, which he had not before done since he had been with me. Under its influence he did not always talk discreetly, and caused scandal amongst our Hindu and Musalman neighbours. I had at that time in the printing-house some lads from the orphan asylum, who had somehow got a taste of this drug, and were in danger from it; and we were therefore obliged to deal sharply with Hari Das, and to hinder him from smoking it altogether. He took offence, and left me at once. I regretted it exceedingly ; for there ap- peared such evident signs of grace in him, that I could not but attribute his ill conduct to occasional insanity. I heard of his being afterwards employed several years in an English family as a children's attendant; but there he took offence because the family laughed at him for wishing to marry an old widow, who lived in the neighbourhood. He left them on this, and I have not heard of him since. I have heard that on his journeys he always preached against idolatry, told his own experience of it, and declared that only Christ could fill the heart. He used to tell me that he ex- pected to die on some journey, and be buried where no Christian would know of his grave; but, said he, " Christ will know where it is, when he comes to gather his people together, and make up his jewels." Many years since, at a time when I had no cate- chist, a young man presented himself to me, asking for employment. He spoke such beautiful Urdu, and appeared so clever, that I was at once much struck with him. On inquiry, I found that he was the son of a gentleman, formerly an indigo planter in Oude, by a Musalman woman. He had a brother with him, and both of them were married to Musalman women ; and 94 MISSIONARY LIFE a young man, a connection of the women, also accom- panied them. The brothers were nominal Christians, and the other young man a Musalman. The one who first came to me was made Munshi to me, and his brother was placed in our English school as assistant, while their Musalman friend was put into the type- foundry. For a time all things appeared to go on well. The Munshi was made catechist, and was an eloquent and persuasive disputant. I never have been so thoroughly captivated by any man as by him. But when some time had passed, we found that he was getting deeply into debt. Gradually we found out him and his brother in various falsehoods and rascali- ties, and were obliged to put them out of our com- munion, and discharge them. A pair of more thorough villains probably never existed; and the extreme plau- sibility that enabled the chief one of them to deceive me so greatly, at the same time fitted them to carry on their villanies, so that not a tenth part of them was discovered until the explosion caused by their discharge brought them to light. My disappointment as to this man was one of my chief trials as a missionary. This case should have had a place along with other sad ones, had it not been for its connection with the following. The Musalman young man did not seem to be in- volved in their offences.. He had long been under instruction, and had made a profession of Christianity. When his friends went away we invited him to cast off their bonds, and no longer be connected with such disreputable men. He determined to do so. After- ward he was made a catechist, and laboured under my care for several years, giving general satisfaction. He has since become a catechist at Futtehgurh, has much improved as a preacher, and is steady and well liked there. There are several catechists in the Allahabad mis- sion, who were brought up in our orphan asylum. I do not think an orphan asylum the best possible place IN NORTH INDIA. 95 in which to educate men. It seems to produce a character always too much prone to dependence. For this reason our young men have not fully met our expectations. But they may yet improve. And as they are we have had much valuable fruit from the asylum. One went with Mr. James Wilson to Agra, and died there very young, but not before he had gained the hearty love and confidence of all who knew him. Mr. Wilson always spoke of him as one of the most lovely Christians whom he had known. The assistants of the Rev. Gopinath Nandi, at Fut- tehpore, are from the same asylum, as are also our catechists who are labouring at our out-station called Banda. A catechist at Agra, who was under my care while I was stationed there, is a convert from the Armenian Church, a few families of which are settled there. He is a good and quiet man, very willing to labour, and of good character amongst the natives. He is supported by the Presbyterian church at Agra. I have no doubt but that the details of this chapter will seem dark and discouraging to some readers. Many appear to expect that all news from mission fields should be rose-coloured; that all converts should be a joy and comfort to us; and that they should be not only free from the evils caused by a vicious edu- cation and corrupt society, but even from those inhe- rent in human nature itself. But a moment's reflection will correct such an expectation as this. There is at least as much probability that there will be hypocrites amongst our converts as in the churches at home; that interested motives should actuate some of them; and that the natural evils of character, and evil cir- cumstances, should mar the developments of piety. A correct view of our circumstances will even show that the missionary in India must have more of these evils to struggle with than the pastor at home. It should also be remembered, that these anecdotes 96 MISSIONARY LIFE contain no account of the mass of our people, or even of the greater number of well-behaved catechists. The use that ought to be made of these facts is, that the Church should be induced to give special thanks for those that are satisfactory, and to pray for special grace to be given to the missionaries and their con- verts, to guard them from ever present evils. If our history, a specimen of which has been given in this chapter, be compared with that of the apostolic period, we shall find a similarity greater than most people suspect. Paul was obliged to reprove the Corinthians for dissensions, for disorderly practices, and for allowing a gross crime. The apostles had amongst their very early converts, Simon of Samaria, whose first thought w T as how he tnight make money out of religion. Mark departed from the service of Paul, when the latter cer- tainly esteemed it a dereliction of duty. Paul com- plains of the Roman Christians, who were apparently frightened by the dangers surrounding them : — "At my first answer [trial] no man stood with me." False teachers arose in the churches in abundance. Demas loved this present world. Diotrephes loved the pre- eminence. But there is no need to go further : our work will be injured by the truth, in the opinion of no one who does not wish for an excuse for holding back from it; and the intelligent sympathy and prayers of God's true children will more than compensate for these defections, if there be any such. Let us all expect trials and disappointments. IN NOKTH INDIA. 97 CHAPTER V. CHURCH BUILDINGS. AND PREACHING AT THE STATIONS. The preceding chapters have already made known some of our first expedients for places of Hindustani worship — one being the school-room in Mr. Wilson's house, and the other, a room in the printing-house. In Mr. Morrison's house the English service was held. This was a state of things that could not be other- wise than temporary. Amongst our plans would, of course, be schemes for building places of worship, in which all our associations would be favourable to de- votion, where all could assemble with convenience, and to which strangers might feel at liberty to come. And we felt persuaded that the mere sight of a Chris- tian place of worship would excite inquiry, and thus do good — that is to say, would, in a certain manner, be a continual preacher to the natives. The English congregation first took measures to build a church. The members subscribed liberally, and the other resi- dents at the station helped them very handsomely; and a neat little building was put up and finished. I made every effort to have it built close to the native town, or in it, so that it would answer for a Hindus- tani chapel as well; but it was built outside. This was a miscalculation, as will appear hereafter. The next year after my settlement at Allahabad the mission bought a new place for the families of Messrs. Wilson and Freeman, and for the two orphan asylums, on the bank of the Jumna, between the two parts of the native city. West of this place, or up that river, lay the old city — the city proper; and east of it, or down the river, a comparatively new suburb of great size, extending towards the Fort. The lot of land which we here secured, had a verv large bungalow upon it, 9 98 MISSIONARY LIFE through the middle of which we put up a new wall; and, after some other minor alterations it became two good houses. The former kitchen and buildings attached to it were so large that we put the girls' orphan asylum into them, with sufficient apartments for the matron, an East Indian woman, and her hus- band. Over against this place, but at a considerable distance, we built a house For the boys' orphan asylum. On the opposite side of a road, that was in front of the place, was a lot of land, that was attached to this estate ; and on this lot was a building, that had been part of an old mint, abolished when the East India Company made arrangements for a uniform coinage for India, and for making it in the European manner. This old house we repaired, and made the place for Hindustani worship. The congregation now began to look like one: the two asvlums had come together, and some other Christians were assembled. But this place was dark, hot, inconvenient, and of mean appearance. It was only intended to be temporary. The English congregation, mentioned above, had been gathered in the first place by the late Rev. James McEwen. This gentleman spent some time at Alla- habad as a missionary of the Associate Reformed Church, in connection with the Board of the Western Foreign Missionary Society. His health, however, never allowed him to enter fully upon missionary labours. He preached in English in his own house, and organized a church, consisting of some few Presbyte- rians, some English dissenters, and a few persons who had become dissatisfied in the Church of England. Two elders were ordained. When Mr. McEwen's health compelled him to return to America, the Rev. James Wilson took his place; and he was joined the next year by the Rev. J. H. Morrison. These gen- tlemen ministered to the Church, and were assisted by Mr. Freeman and me after our arrival. The peo- ple composing this congregation were almost entirely IN NORTH INDIA. 99 from two government offices. Not long after they had completed the building of their church, as before related, the government offices were removed to Agra, which had some time before been made the seat of the government for the Northwest Provinces. This movement totally removed this congregation from Allahabad, with the exception of the mission families, and left their edifice vacant. All the families of the mission save one were living three miles from this church; and therefore the building was useless for English services. It was also useless as a place for Hindustani worship ; for, though not far away from the press, it was too far to be convenient for the native Christian women. The manners of Hindus- tan, as to women, are so peculiar, that decent native women cannot walk far from home, or go out in any other manner, save in close conveyances. English women act as they do at home, in spite of native prejudice ; and no doubt the native Christian women will be able to assume similar liberty, w r hen they can be recognized as Christians. Unfortunately, at pre- sent they are taken to be women of an objectionable class, and insulted if they walk out. This edifice was also out of the town so far that it did not attract other native visitors. It was accordingly taken down, and its doors, and some of its materials were used in the construction of the new church, near the Jumna mission-house, with the consent of the owners* The mission desired very much to have a church edifice at this place. Our English, as well as our Hindustani meetings were now held in the old mint. But almost all of us thought it impossible to raise the means for building. However, as treasurer of the mission, with its approval, I began to " nurse a church- building fund," to use the phrase which was then my favourite one in describing it. The Executive Com- mittee in New York allowed us to use donations received in India, for the general purposes of the 100 MISSIONARY LIFE mission, in any local undertaking of this kind ; and we began to put all such accumulations into a bank- er's hands as an interest deposit. This Committee also allowed us to use a small sum, which we saved out of the estimated expenses of the mission during one year; and this was added to the deposit. When we had thus made a fair beginning we sent about a subscription, and the object was secured. This was a delightful labour for me; and Mr. Freeman zeal- ously assisted me in it, especially in procuring the later donations to finish the work — always a matter of more difficulty than the beginning. He and I laid out the general plan of the work; I pitched tents on the ground, and remained there nearly a month, while we arranged for burning the bricks and the lime; and then I left the carrying on of the building to him, on account of the distance of my house from that place. He did the work well, assisted by my cate- chist, Babu John Hari. The church is large enough to seat four hundred people in the close native man- ner. It is not a specimen of correct achitecture; but yet is pronounced pretty, and substantial, and appro- priate, by almost every one. It was dedicated by a mixed Hindustani and English service, in which all the missionaries present took a part, in the presence of all our native Christians and many English and native visitors. The early day in our mission history at which this was completed, and the small means with which we had to begin, rendered our success a subject of much thanksgiving and pleasure. Needing a chapel near the printing-house, in which the part of the church connected with this establishment might worship on ordinary occasions, I applied for a grant from the Executive Committee, but could not obtain one, because the funds were already pledged to other objects. At this juncture a friend offered to lend me a small sum of money — nearly enough for the purpose. The loan was IN NORTH INDIA. 101 accepted, and a fund for repaying it was " nursed," as it had been for the church. The loan was paid when expected — the final settlement of the whole account being brought about by a subscription amongst the native Christians. For this chapel we secured a lot of land facing the road leading through the large native village near the Press. This village is called Kattara, and contains the native shop- keepers, mechanics, and miscellaneous population attached to the European station, beside the original old families, which belonged to it before the English gained possession of those provinces. At one end of the town there is but a small space between the main street and the back part of the press premises, where the Christian houses are situated; and through this space a narrow land leads by the side of the chapel to the street. This private lane allows the native Christian women to walk to church; which is an important consideration in view of native prejudices. Previous to the building of these churches, we built a small chapel at the Chauk) in which to preach to the Hindus and Musalmans of the city, and for a vernacular school. This place was built entirely by a subscription amongst the European residents at the station. All Hindustani cities have what is called The Chauk, and some have more than one. Some are wide streets, and some are open squares, near the centre of the town. The Chauk is the chief place of business. The best shops usually surround it. Various hawkers of merchandize frequent it. The dandies of the city display their fine airs and dresses in it towards the evening. The tellers and hearers of news resort to it in crowds. Strangers go to it to stare at the people and sights of the city. At Alla- habad the Chauk is a vacant square on one side of the principal street. The back part of the square is bounded by a large tank, or artificial pond of water; and in the centre of this side our chapel is placed, 9* 102 MISSIONARY LIFE with its back wall near the brink of the tank. The ground for this purpose was given to us by the government. Two sides of the square are lined with shops; and the opposite side of the street is covered with an arcade, in which are also shops. This large square, and the street before it, are filled every even- ing with an almost solid mass of human beings. Near our place on the Jumna formerly lived an old Musalman woman, who had been the wife or mistress of an Englishman. She had a house, and some jewels and finery, as well as a little other property. She became acquainted with some of the women attached to the mission, and was induced to attend the Hindus- tani services, and finally made a profession of Chris- tianity in our connection. After a year or two she died; and on her death-bed she bequeathed to the mission her property, a part of which had been already pawned to us as security for money which we had lent to her for her current expenses. She had no relatives in the world, and we had no hesitation in accepting the legacy. With it we built another chapel in Kyd Ganj, the suburb east of the mission-house. This chapel is on one of the main thoroughfares of the city. In it is kept another of our vernacular schools. At most of our stations the missionaries maintain English services on the Sabbath evenings, for their own families and the few English who wish to join with them, together with that portion of the native Christians who can speak English. At Allahabad all of us usually took this service in turn, so that it proved in no way burdensome. It is an advantage, rather than otherwise, to have to preach occasionally in English. It has also been a great comfort to our families to have these services ; for, though our wives learn Hindustani, yet very few do so to such an ex- tent as to render services in that language so edifying as those in English are. Beside this, the English IN NORTH INDIA. 103 service is profitable to our catechists and pupils who are learning our language. Since the removal of the English church to Agra a few pious Presbyterians have been in communion with us while residing at the station: one, a surgeon in the army, was made an elder, and assisted in our session; and after his re- moval to another station served another of our con- gregations in the same capacity. A few Europeans and East Indians have been admitted to a profession of faith there. In all these ways we have the satis- faction of knowing that our labours have not been in vain in the Lord; and that our success has, indeed, been eminent, when we consider the small number of people that were accessible by this form of effort. When I was removed to Agra circumstances were such that I was called upon to be the minister of the Presbyterian church there — the same church that originated at Allahabad — for a year and a half. The Rev. Messrs. Fullerton and Williams gave me occa- sional assistance. We had three full services in the week. This has been the only occasion on which I have given up any time to other Christians than na- tives; and this by no means hindered my doing other work for the mission to a very considerable extent. Further mention of this people will be found in the eighth chapter of this work. Beside thus preaching English in our churches, I have occasionally preached to soldiers of European regiments, both at Allahabad and Agra, and on the road when they were marching. As soon as I could preach in Hindustani, I took charge of my own congregation at the Press, while the other missionaries carried on the vernacular services at the Jumna, and usually maintained a Sabbath morning service at the chapel in Kyd Ganj. The congregation at the Jumna contained the orphan asy- lums, the families of catechists and teachers, the servants of the mission families, and two or three ver- 104 MISSIONARY LIFE nacular schools. The boys of the English school often attended, as did some men from the city. That at Kyd Ganj contained some families of poor native Christians, such as pensioned drummers, and two ver- nacular schools, beside many occasional hearers. This chapel, being on a great thoroughfare, often attracted those who were passing, and was a good place for the proclamation of the gospel. My congregation had two vernacular schools, beside my own people and frequent visitors. The native infantry regiments in the East India Company's service usually have Christian musicians. They are native Christians of various kinds— the greater part the descendants of the old Roman Catho- lic converts, left without any care, and very ignorant and depraved. Many call themselves Portuguese, but scarcely differ from those before mentioned. The Por- tuguese in India have mixed with the low caste natives so thoroughly, that there is left scarcely any difference between them : in complexion, and other physical qua- lities, genteel natives of the upper provinces have the advantage of them. Others of these musicians are native Protestants, who probably conducted them- selves badly in their missions; and others are the descendants of the lowest East Indians, sprung from European soldiers and low native mothers. Two of the regiments are stationed at Allahabad, but not always the same, as it is customary to change the can- tonments of all the regular regiments of the line every two or three years. Some of the musicians cannot speak English at all, and the greater part of them but imperfectly. I procured leave for them to attend my service, from their commanding officers, when possible. The cate- chists often assisted in efforts for this class. There is no doubt but that good was done in some instances. One family of six persons publicly renounced popery in my chapel; but as this was near the close of their IN NORTH INDIA. 105 residence at Allahabad, they were not admitted to full membership. They pledged themselves, however, to attend Protestant worship wherever they went. I also held meetings frequently at their houses. One Musal- man woman, who was intimate with the people of one of these bands, was converted, baptized, and married to a drummer. This part of my congregation was irregular, because some of the regiments were more inaccessible than others; but they often added largely to my sphere of labour. At first, one Hindustani sermon in a week, and a Bible class, was as much as I could prepare for. After a time, a week-day evening service was added; and finally a second service on the Sabbath was substituted for the Bible class, and the want of this was supplied by exposition of the portions of Scripture read daily at our morning worship. Occasionally I exchanged with those who preached at the other places; and fre- quently Babu Hari, the catechist, who after a time became a licentiate, took one of these services. The different forms of preaching done directly for the Hindus and Musalmans, are next to be described. It is with sorrow that I have say, I could not do so much of this as I desired. Having charge of the press, being treasurer of the mission, and often having much other secular work to do for the mission, beside being pastor of a small congregation, it was sometimes im- practicable to find any time when it was possible for me to go out to preach for three or four days together. And often, after a hard day's work in an exhausting climate, there was not strength or energy sufficient to carry me to the city or the bazar, if there were time. Six hours' steady employment at a desk is considered a hard day's work for a European in that climate; and I often spent ten, and rarely less than eight, be- sides the duties that my family required, and all the time spent in actual preaching. Another hinderance, which I sometimes felt, was the want of a horse, to aid 106 MISSIONARY LIFE me in visiting the more distant villages. Walking to them, through the greater part of the year, is quite inconsistent with a due regard to health. And if one were to walk out and preach at a distance, by the time he reached home he would be unfit for the labours con- nected with the press or translation. Every mission ought to be authorized to allow to each man, who is qualified for this business, a horse and light vehicle to carry him and his catechist to their work. It would double their efficiency in this department. At Saha- runpore, they have a kind of car drawn by one horse, that goes to the city every day, carrying the two mis- sionaries and two or three catechists, or as many of them as can go. I neglected to learn how this is sup- ported ; but it is a good thing, and immensely increases the effective labours of the station. Sometimes the missions furnish a horse to assist the superintendent of the city school, when he lives at a distance from it; and this is a principle, the operation of which ought to be extended. There are various ways in which we preach to the heathen. Probably the readers of this book have some notion of them; but still it may be well to bring them together into one view. For this purpose let us begin with street preaching. When about to engage in this, the missionary and catechist take their stand in the verandah of a cha- pel, or school-house, or a place hired for the purpose, beside a frequented thoroughfare, or at the chauk, and resort to various plans to gain an audience. Often the catechist begins to read some tract aloud; sometimes the missionary accosts some man who is passing, with an observation about his health, the weather, or any common subject; and the people stop to listen. Frequently the people gather around of themselves, on merely seeing the party. When several are collected the missionary or catechist gives such a turn to the reading or conversation, that it IN NORTH INDIA. 107 slides into a continuous speech. When he is tired, the other takes it up. When sufficient time is passed in this way, tracts and Scriptures are offered to read- ers who desire them. Care is taken to see that appli- cants can read, and also that they seem anxious to get a book ; except in some cases, when people from a dis- tance promise to carry the book to some friend at home who can read; or a disputant is furnished with a tract on a particular subject under discussion, and which he may be induced to promise to read. The whole Bible is never, and the entire New Testament very seldom, offered on these occasions ; but portions of them, such as those mentioned in the chapter on the press. This is the course that all aim to pursue; but they are always liable to many interruptions. The hear- ers will often break in with questions and objections. W'hen the questions seem to be put with a real desire to hear a more full explanation of any point, they are always answered; but if they are merely factious ones, intended to interrupt the preaching, as is often the case, they are evaded if possible: the missionary tells the audience that the question is out of place — does not refer to the subject in hand; or that he will be glad to take up the subject when he is done with the present one; or he hands over a tract, saying that that contains the answer, which may be read at leisure. But it is not always easy to get rid of a man who is determined to cause an interruption; he often insists on an answer, and becomes noisy. He perhaps pushes himself forward, looks to the right and left for support, gesticulates violently, and declares that he has floored the missionary, who can- not answer his questions ; and it becomes necessary to take up the subject thus thrust forward, often to the partial or total eclipse of the original one. It requires a great deal of skill, good temper, tact and discretion, as well as information, to manage such a discussion well. A ready use of the native language 108 MISSIONARY LIFE also is most important in snch cases. If the mis- sionary hesitates for a word, his opponent will have all the more opportunity to push his objection ; and he will generally be quick enough to perceive his advan- tage, and to seize upon it. To lose one's temper, to give anything short of a conclusive answer, or to stumble and become confused, are destructive of all hope of making an impression at that time, and will usually cause a scattering of the audience. The temper is often tried by men and boys, who evidently seek a kind of notoriety by opposing the missionary. Perhaps he may be talking on the necessity of an atonement for sin ; when, in the midst of his argument, with a crowd of people listening with apparent interest,, a Musalm&n will break in with — "You believe in two Gods— you make Jesus to be God." The missionary takes no notice of the remark, hoping that it will not be repeated. "Oh yes, you are like the idolators— you make a man God." No answer. "You see, brethren, this preacher wishes to slur over an evident fact: I have said he believes in two Gods, and he cannot answer me." Then, taking courage, he keeps up a vociferation, till the multitude becomes confused. Here the missionary must stop, and answer the objection, or postpone it, or appeal to the people to stop it as irrelevant, which they will sometimes good-naturedly force the objector to do. But, whichever of these things may be the result, the opposer has gained his end, of showing himself off as clever and zealous, and a certain amount of hinderance has been thrown in the way of the truth. Or, pro- bably some objection is made to what is said, and the objector will insist on having an opportunity to state it. At such a time if the missionary allow himself to be hurried into an answer too soon, the result often is a small running fire on both sides, which may sub- serve some of the designs of more formal preaching, but as surely defeats a part of them. When an IN NORTH INDIA. 109 objector seems to be very full of matter, and always has something to add as often as the preacher begins to answer him, and complains that he is not allowed fairly and fully to bring out his objections, it is fre- quently best to say, "Well, you may state all you wish, on the condition that you do it all at once, and then let me answer without interrupting me." If he consents to this, the preacher will then call on all the people to see fair play, and keep him to his agreement. Then the man begins, after promising that he will talk a long time now that he has the ground, and attempts to make a great speech; but frequently breaks down in two minutes. Thus the same man, who would have conversed and wrangled for an hour, is silenced by being allowed to talk as long as he will without interruption. Then the missionary asks, "Are you done?" "Yes." "You are ready to con- fess that you have had the opportunity you demanded, and have said what you wish to say?" "Yes." After this the preacher can answer him in quiet. If the opponent attempts any further interruption before that subject is disposed of, the people will gen- erally insist on his keeping silence, that they may hear the preacher's answer. But now and then the result is different: several objectors encourage each other, and make a noise out of enmity and spite, and seriously hinder us. This, however, does not often happen : the speaker has often to deal with difficul- ties — seldom with impossibilities. Sometimes the missionary and his assistant are obliged to take their stand simply in the street, for want of a place that may be hired for this purpose. I have many times stopped in front of a shop, to talk with the people in it ; and, after introducing some ordinary topic of conversation, have been invited to sit down. The people readily gathered about, out of curiosity; and then I stood up and preached. At other times we begin, in something like the manner 10 110 MISSIONARY LIFE of public criers, without preface or help, and do the best we can. We almost always obtain an audience; but occa- sionally people are busy, or some noisy opponent dis- gusts them, or we make an unskilful and uninteresting beginning, and the people will not remain. This, however, seldom happens. Our opponents are usually respectful in word and manner; but the reverse of this happens too, and causes great trials of patience. On one occasion, when I was preaching in the verandah of the Chauk chapel, with a good audience, principally Mohamme- dans, a man pushed his way up to me from the back part of the crowd, and interrupted me without preface or apology, by saying, "You are a liar and rascal, sir; you preach a corrupt book to the people. Hear, brethren; this fellow pretends that Christians are superior to us in morality, and that their book is holy: but in truth it allows a man to take his mother for a wife, and to steal." The suddenness and grossness of this attack both startled and made me indignant. I should be less than a man if I had not to confess that my temper was seriously tried. Therefore I answered him, in his own style in a measure — "You know that to be a gross slander and a falsehood. What induces you to be guilty of such conduct as this?" He answered, "What I say is true, and you know it to be so." I asked, "Have you read the gospel?" He said, "Yes; I have carefully examined it; I know as much of it as you do; I have gone over it with great attention more than once, and am prepared to prove that Christian pretensions to pure morality are all a lie, and that the book allows the grossest licentiousness and dishonesty." I induced him to repeat his specific charges, and then asked him to point out the places on which they IN NORTH INDIA. Ill were founded in an Urdu New Testament, which I held out to him. By this time I had quite mastered my temper. He refused to touch the book, affecting to be struck with horror at it, as polluting, and saying, "Turn to the places and read them out yourself: you will find that the seventh chapter and fifth verse tells a man to marry his mother, if she be a widow, and cannot procure another husband; and the sixteenth chapter and eighth verse says that stealing is lawful to a poor man." I asked him in what book these things were to be found ? He said, "In the New Testament." "But in what book of the New Testament?" He replied, "Now you are trying to mystify. The New Testament is a book, is it not? What do you mean by asking about its books? You are a tricky, dishonest fellow. See, brethren, how he twists." "Then in what tract, or division of the book?" I asked. "You know that the book is made up of seve- ral small tracts ; in which of them are the things you have mentioned?" He said that I was lying; the book was not so divided; all he knew or would say was, that the ob- jectionable matter was to be found in the chapters and verses he had named; that I could find and read them out to the people if I dared to do it ; and that it was all nonsense and trick to pretend that a book had more than one chapter of a given numbering. Then I said, " Very well; I will read those verses aloud" — and I did so from the gospel of Matthew. On this he exclaimed, " You are an infamous and lying scoundrel. You are not reading from your pre- tended gospel at all." On this I appealed to several men, who were standing by, and told them that they had seen, and at least partially read, the New Testament; and that I would leave it to them to say which of us was the 112 MISSION AEY LIFE liar. He vociferated, and repeated his tale. I knew that several in the crowd were well aware that I was right, and I calculated on their sense of honour. And I also knew that I must do something decided, or the greater part of the crowd would believe him ; and I was very thoroughly roused. Beside this, I thought that this was the time to " answer a fool according to his folly" — -to " rebuke sharply/' Ac- cordingly I began, not on a mere impulse of anger, but by calculation, to pour out on him a torrent of rebuke. He tried to silence me by noise, and I met him with noise — the only time that I ever entered into such a, contest. When he became silent, I coolly repeated, that he was a black-hearted and horrible liar. I showed the book, explained its divisions, and proved to the people that he could never have read it. I pointed out the grossness of his attack; and showed from it that he could be no gentleman. I reminded them of his pretensions to learning, and how ridiculously he had failed to make them good. Then I closed by saying that if he had displayed the tendency, spirit and morality of Mohammedan- ism, they had better forsake it. The consequence was that they refused to hear a word from him in explanation; told him that he had disgraced their cause, and hustled him out of the ring. There are two things that helped to explain some parts of his conduct. The Sunni, or orthodox sect of the Musalmans, accuse the Shias of holding the very same corrupt doctrines, which he charged upon the New Testament. This was the thing that suggested to him the charges with which to interrupt me. And there had recently been several tracts published against us and the New Testament at Lucknow, the place of this man's residence, in which the most gross and reckless charges had been made; and he had probably been reading them till he thought he had such an idea of the New Testament that he could IN NORTH INDIA. 113 appear to be well acquainted with it. Indeed, so shockingly false are these Mohammedan contro- versial works, that it would be no wonder to find in them the identical charges which he made, and the same references that he mentioned. It is a singular fact, that this man, after this scene, during his stay at Allahabad, attended my preaching several times, and was peaceable; and even called on me, and received the gift of a New Testament and some tracts. On another occasion a Hindu said to me, "You are a great fool to preach about Christ. He tried for three years to gather a sect of followers, and when he found his effort a complete failure, he cut his throat in disgust." Another once said tome, " You have said to us that our gods are no gods ; I should very much like to kill you." In this case a soft answer completely disarmed the man. It is very common for us to be told that we are liars, or that an assertion of ours is a lie ; but we get used to this, and do not regard it very much, though at first it is hard for one with the feelings and educa- tion of a gentleman to bear it patiently. We soon learn that a native opponent does not suppose himself to be insulting us by giving us the lie; amongst them- selves it is a common part of conversation. And they all hold the doctrine that the end justifies the means, and despise an opponent who does not lie when he can do so with good effect. Therefore they look upon falsehood as a perfectly natural and justifiable weapon in argumentation, and can hardly conceive of our never resorting to it. They cannot feel confidence in the asseverations of any man, because they themselves are so thoroughly mendaci- ous. They must have a good deal of experience of our truthfulness before they will consider a profes- sion of it to be anything more than the greatest con- ceivable falsehood. This is at first a great disadvan- tage in preaching to them. 10* 114 MISSIONARY LIFE There were two large villages near my house, iu which I preached oftener than in any other near Al- lahabad. The cross-roads in these villages were good places in which to gather audiences. But we had to stand on the level of the street: we were not able to hire a place on either of the corners. It would be well to purchase corner shops in such places, even at twice their value. At Agra my experience in this respect was not different. I had three favourite places : two in frequented streets, and one at an old gate of the city, through which many people passed to get water, and to visit some temples outside. At both cities I sometimes visited the temples, and talked to the wor- shippers. Large audiences cannot usually be obtained at these places, except on festival days. The other missionaries frequently went out to preach in the streets more than I did. I do not know that their experience, or their modes of procedure, differed from mine. I have told my own experience, not be- cause I suppose it to be peculiar, but as a specimen of this work. We often also preached at the ghats. These are landings, or bathing places on the river bank. Some of them are flights of stone, or brick steps, built by rich Hindus, " for a name," or to gain religious merit. Other ghats are mere slopes dug down through the bank to the water. These are good places to preach at in the morning, because all Hindus go to some one of them to bathe every morning, when it is at all con- venient. Most missionaries frequent them when they can. It is at such places that women can be got to hear. They will not usually seem to attend; but if if one chooses his place judiciously, they can hear him while they are undressing, or dressing,* or pretending * The Hindi! women bathe with a cloth around the loins, one end of which is drawn over the shoulder, and covers the greater part of the chest. When they come out of the water, they hold a dry cloth of the same kind around themselves as a screen, and IN NORTH INDIA. 115 to gossip. This is almost our only opportunity to preach to the women ; though I have had an audience of them more than once, when preaching at a place called Alopi Bagh, near the fort at Allahabad. On one morning of every week, great numbers of them visit this place to worship a form of Bhawani, or Durga, and to bring sickly children, in the hope of getting the goddess to remove her evil influence from them. But generally the women are very shy, and stand gazing at a distance. Beside these, there were services at the Chauk chapel. It is common for missionaries, who have chapels in places much frequented, to hold evening meetings in them. They go to them at stated times, taking with them some native Christian friends, beside the catechist, if possible. Before dark there is preach- ing and disputation in the verandah, similar to the street preaching described above. When it becomes dark, the audience is invited to go inside and sit down, and listen to a regular discourse. The service on these occasions consists of reading the Scriptures, singing, and praying. The singing usually draws the people into the chapel very much. Then a sermon is deli- vered, and opponents are not allowed to speak; though after the service is closed, they may ask questions. I often went to our chapel at the Chauk in this way. This is in some respects by far the most satisfactory form of preaching ; though the audience is very fluc- tuating — the people come and go without much regard to order. Preaching in the villages around Allahabad ought also to be mentioned. This city is placed like Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, at the confluence of two rivers; but only the fort occupies the place precisely similar drop the wet one while fastening the dry. They seem to have no idea that there is anything immodest in this; and the men, who may be near, are never guilty of any rudeness to them. The cus- toms of the country in this respect are admirable. 116 MISSIONARY LIFE to the situation of Pittsburgh. The city of Allaha- bad is about a mile and a half from the fort on the bank of the Jumna. The eastern suburb, named Kyd Ganj, before mentioned, extends down the Jumna to within about half a mile of the fort. Above the city and station the Ganges approaches comparatively near to the Jumna, and then retreats from it, and makes a long detour, before they meet below the fort. Thus Allahabad, both city and English station, stands in a kind of peninsula. The village of Kattara, near which the press is, is very near the centre of this peninsula. Besides the two large villages, (forming in fact a town of some five thousand people,) that stand in the centre, there are about thirty of different sizes within three miles of the press. Some of these villages are close to the back of the city ; some are on the great northwestern road that leads out from the station; some are on the bank of the Ganges in a great semi-circle on the east and north of the station ; and some are scatter- ed here and there throughout the area. The whole space, except the building spots and a few ravines, is covered with magnificent fields and groves; even the broad sand-banks, left by the river during the dry season, are at times fully clothed with a luxuriant crop of melons and similar articles. This is as great a field of labour as any' one missionary and a cate- chist need, to keep them employed all the time: they could not visit all these places in the mornings of a month. Through this tract I preached as much as I could — not as much as was needed, by a great deal, but as I had time, strength and means. In some of the places, where the people congregated at some public sitting place in the evening, I went at that time; but the greater part of the places were visited in the morning. Generally I found an opportunity to gather a congregation before the door, or in the yard of some house. Often a great part of the IN NORTH INDIA. 117 people were absent in the fields, but some could always be found. One of these villages, about a mile and a half from the press, had in it one of our ver- nacular schools ; and here I always had something to do when I could go. In these places we have to pro- ceed very much as in the streets of the city and towns. The people perhaps are a little less disputa- tious; but then they are less intelligent also. For some time I kept a riding horse, being directed by our physician to do so on account of a tendency to disease ; and then I used to talk with people whom I found on the road. On some occasions this kind of effort was very successful as to obtaining hearers. On many occasions I have had very interesting con- versations with people on the road. As specimens I will here insert a few extracts. "A decent looking, well-dressed woman was walk- ing near me, with a light walking-stick on her shoulder, from the upper end of which depended a small red bag. I asked her what she had in it. She answered me, 'My husband, Sahib.' 'What?' said I, 'your husband?' 'Yes,' she replied, 'my lord's ashes.' Strange as this scene may seem to those who read this in America, it was not strange here. The woman herself, though grave, yet spoke calmly about it, and as if it were a matter of course; and of the many people who were near us, no one made any remark. I was touched with a strange feeling of respect for, and of sympathy with, the poor woman, though what she was doing was quite idolatrous, and could not easily clear my throat to carry on the con- versation." [She was carrying the ashes to throw into the Ganges, her husband having died at too great a distance from the river to be burned on its brink.] " 14. — Very shortly after leaving the house, I overtook a man who was walking fast, and repeating Sita Ram ! Sita Ram ! as fast as he could. I asked 118 MISSIONARY LIFE him if he wanted anything? He said, Yes; his land had become very poor; he himself so devout, he could not attend to his business ; and his son so bad a manager that the family was fast getting into debt; and he was calling on Ram for help. I told him that Ram came to destroy Rawan, and not to help poor sinners ; that Jesus was the sinner's friend, &c. His attention was strongly attracted, and he promised to inquire about the way I pointed out. Paid my whole attention to him alone for this morning. He lives about fifteen miles from the city." " 19. —This morning rode out on the Lucknow road. A little way from home overtook a party of two men and two women. Accosted them, and learned that they were from some distance beyond the Ganges, and had never heard anything particular of the Saviour. Talked to them about him, and having induced them to tell me something, which I knew very well before, about their gods, I went into a comparison of them with the Lord Jesus Christ." 44 23. — Overtook three Musalmans from the city, and had a long discussion with them, in which they did not hesitate to deny that passages which made against them were in the Koran. Left them with but little hope. Tried to get up a talk with a Hindu soldier; but he answered everything with a full and formal military salute, and a 'Your honour knows everything.' Obliged to leave him without being sure that I had communicated one idea to his mind." " Passed on, and found a man and woman in the road, who told me they were from the neighbourhood of Cawnpore, and had come down to bathe at the junc- tion. I asked the man what benefit he expected from it; and he told me his expectations were alto- gether indefinite; he came because all the world came. Are there not many like him in all lands — guilty of folly and sin, because they wish to be like all the world ? He had never heard of Christ before. His IN NORTH INDIA. 119 wife listened, but said nothing. Several others came up, and I talked to them till it was time to turn about for home." One of our special forms of labour is preaching at fairs. This is practiced by all our missionaries when- ever the opportunity offers. There are a great many minor assemblages, all over the country, for religious purposes. The greatest of all is held at Allahabad, during the Hindu month Magh, which falls in Janu- ary and February. An immense multitude of people used to assemble here to bathe on particular days at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna. They be- lieve that the Saraswati, which sinks into the sands before proceeding far from the hills, here joins the other two holy rivers, having proceeded under the ground. A full description of this fair cannot be given here ; and therefore I will content myself with giving an idea of the way we labour at such places, by inserting some extracts from articles heretofore written on the subject. " Every twelfth year there is usually a larger assemblage of people here than on other years; and as this is the year [1847], we were expecting a very much larger meld than we have had two or three years past; but we were agreeably disappointed — this mela really seems to be going out of fashion — bathing at this 'king of junctions' seems to be less esteemed than formerly. When I first came to this place the assemblage of people was very great — I well remember being almost crushed in the press a very little way from our preaching place; and four or five years ago it was no uncommon thing to be obliged to get out of one's buggy two or three hundred yards from the embankment on which we pitch our tents, because the crowd of people was so great that it was next to impossible to get on. But there has been a regular and great falling off ever since. It is amusing to hear the excuses given for this, at differ- 120 MISSIONARY LIFE ent times, by the Pryagwals [the Brahmans who attend as priests at the junction.] One year it was the Gwalior war ; another year it was said, that the pilgrims from the North and East had suffered so much from cholera the previous year, that all the people in those parts were frightened, and kept away; and last year it was the Punjabi war that made the mela so contemptible; — what they will say now, I cannot guess. "To what is this decrease in the attendance to be attributed ? It would be flattering ourselves beyond measure to believe that our preaching here has been the sole cause. But I believe that this decrease is to be attributed to the efforts that are being made to enlighten the country. I take it to be an indication that the preaching here, at Hardwar, and other great melas; at the several mission stations; and in preach- ing tours — together with the distribution of books, has not been without effect. I shall labour with more courage — shall give out books more hopefully, as long as I am permitted to remain in India, on account of what I have seen and heard this year. Last year we could not say confidently that the Sikh war did not occasion the thin attendance; and the natives told us not to exult yet, but to wait and see the Kumh mel4. We have seen it — and it is not near the average of common years, at least, five or six seasons ago. "Still let no one suppose that this fair was a trifling matter. It was far otherwise. I went to the summit of the embankment at the eastern angle of the fort, which commands a good view of all the mela ground, and looked over it. The junction this year is far below the fort, between which and the Ganges is a tract of land measuring, I should think, about a half a mile (more rather than less) by a mile and a half; and this tract, usually destitute of all signs of human habitations, had been covered by a IN NORTH INDIA. 121 great temporary city, made of grass huts, shops of grass or cloth, tents, faqirs' enclosures, &c; and cir- culating through its dusty lanes and avenues a multi- tude of people, greater than are ever seen together in America on any occasion whatever. There was no lack of people to speak to, nor of work to be done. " Messrs. Owen, Freeman, and I, with our native assistants, have been in as constant attendance as possible. We had two tents set up, and have had constantly a congregation, whenever any of us have been there. We have addressed them about the character of God, and the worship he requires; about the character of man, and the kind of Saviour he needs; about the miracles, instructions, life, death, and resurrection of Christ ; about the sin and folly of idolatry; about the evil nature and effects of Hindu- ism, and the beauty and glory of Christianity. We have made set speeches to many attentive and crowd- ed audiences; we have sometimes conversed familiar- ly with some one man, while scores of others listened; we have read to them ; we have set them against each other, and taken advantage of their division. In every way (except by pious frauds) we have en- deavoured to set forth, illustrate, and enforce the truth; and that God would 'set it home' to their hearts ! " Besides the services at the two tents at the mela ground, brother Owen has been attacking the enemy in flank, by having a service every morning in the Kyd Ganj chapel. The road from the city to the mela ground passes this chapel, and consequently a constant stream of people was to be encountered there. Brother Owen took Paul with him usually; and generally two or three old women, native Chris- tians, who live near, were present. These women are Roman Catholics — have been drummers' wives, or something of the sort, and now live on pensions from government. Brother Owen says, that he 11 122 MISSIONARY LIFE usually gave out a hymn, which he and Paul sung, and these poor women joined them, making a shock- ing noise, but one that very much attracted the passers by — better than a bell " I tried to take the people on the other flank, but was not so successful. There is a place called Bhardwaj, not a great distance from my house, where nearly all the pilgrims resort some time during their stay here. I tried to preach to them there ; but the road is narrow, and was so crowded that I could not find a convenient place. Besides, a native band of musicians, with their frightful instruments, had estab- lished themselves close by, and made such an outrage- ous noise that I could make nothing to be heard, except when speaking almost in the hearer's ear. u We have been assisted by the venerable Mr. Smith, of the Benares Baptist Mission, and his younger companion, Mr. Small; Mr. Drese and Mr. Ullman, German brethren, at present attached to the London Society's Benares Mission; and Mr. Schnei- der, of the Agra Church Mission ; with their native assistants. And one evening, after the labours of the day, we had the pleasure to meet together, and dine and pray together, a company of sixteen mis- sionaries, including the ladies. Thus you see we do come across now and then, a green spot in this otherwise barren wilderness. " The people were, as usual, from all parts of Northern and Western India; and our books are gone with them to their far distant homes. And they will, no doubt, go home and talk about what they have heard, and think of it, and thus become pre- pared in some degree for the time when the light shall be brought nearer to them, and when God, in answer to the prayers of his people, shall pour out his Spirit. " An intelligent young man from Bombay came into our tent, and introduced himself as a man edu- HOOK-SWING I JVC IN NORTH INDIA. 123 cated in English. He was a government school man, and therefore knew nothing of Christianity. I had a serious talk with him, and he promised me that he would go to brother Mitchell, of the Scotch Mission, on his return to Bombay, and read the Evidences of Christianity. He was ashamed of Hinduism — said he was attending his father, who was on pilgrimage, but that he himself came to see the country; and finally confessed, with evident reluctance, that he was ' accomplishing the two objects at once.' He afterwards called on brother Owen, and had conver- sation with him, and examined the school. " This man told me two interesting facts. The first is that the native Christian preachers, of whom you have so often heard as belonging to the Free Church Mission at Bombay, are most respectable men, whose characters even now are held in the highest esteem by the natives there : ' they think them deluded, of course; but not rascals.' These are his words, and contain a most valuable testimony. The other fact is, that he saw poor little Shripat at Poona; and that he still wishes to be baptized. Ever since the Supreme Court at Bombay delivered him up to his relatives, he has been living separate from them — cannot be restored to caste. Let us hope that he will soon escape from the snare of the devil, and be assisted to make an open profession of attachment to Christ. u Close to our principal tent was a tree, on which a swinging faqir was exhibiting himself. Every day he swung more or less — sometimes standing, at other times head downwards, with a slow fire of cow-dung burning under his nose. He had two ropes tied on a limb at some distance from the trunk of the tree; and at the lower ends loops for the feet, wound with red cloth. Sometimes he stood in the loops, and held the ropes with one hand; and sometimes slipping his feet through the loops, hung by the ancles. He kept up 124 MISSIONARY LIFE the swinging motion by pulling at a small cord tied to a limb near the body of the tree. This man did not seem stupefied, as one would suppose he must be, by swinging with his head downwards. We preached the gospel to him, but he w r ould not regard it. On one occasion a faqir of his own sect went with us to him and ordered him to come down, and told him that it was shameful to be making such an ostentatious display of his devotion ; that if he wished to make tapasiya he ought to go to the wilderness. They had a long wrangle between themselves. We tried to teach both, but with small success. The swinger told us that he was doing this to obtain sanctification of heart, and assured us that it was a very successful contrivance. "I was witness to a very singular scene one day at the commencement of this mela. I went down to make arrangements for pitching the tent, and having gone down to look at the bazar below the embank- ment, returned ; w T hen I found all the Sanyasis collect- ing on the top of the embankment. Some Hindu in the city had invited all the sect to dinner, and they were gathering to set out. They had several long native bugles blowing signals, and I noticed besides a great many other instruments — amongst them an English serpent. Silver sticks were carried in front of the crowd, as before native princes. They had a very wild, and even frightful appearance. Some were totally naked; some were dressed in about six square inches of cloth (in a narrow strip) and a string; most of their heads were bare, with the hair long, matted, tangled and sunburnt; one I noticed with long hair turned backwards and plastered down all over his head tight with light coloured clay ; some had caps of every imaginable shape, some covered with brass knobs, brass plates and peacock's feathers ; some had instead of clothes, light clay rubbed all over their IN NORTH INDIA. 125 bodies; others only marks of the same clay on the body and face ; some few were well-dressed. "This shocking crowd kept increasing for about a quarter of an hour, and then moved off towards the city. I did not count them ; but I have often seen regiments of soldiers, consisting of one thousand men each, marching and manoeuvring, and noticed the space of ground they occupy; and I fully believe that these men occupied closely, ground more than sufficient to contain two full regiments marching in close order: from this I judge that there were at least two thousand of them. I could not help thinking what a delightful dinner party the city Hindu had chosen to entertain. Whilst amongst them, I spoke about Christ, and they listened better, and were more mild than I expected. There were several boys amongst these people, and I affectionately invited them to come away with me and learn a better way; but I have often noticed that boys attached to these sects show a more hardened effrontery than the men. "Several times it has happened, that when we were disputing with a Hindu, some man of another sect would take our part, and maintain some part of the truth with great zeal and ability. The common Brah- mans and the Kabirpanthis often contradicted each other; and one day one of the latter sect took up an argument, and conducted it with such ability — so com- pletely prostrated his adversary — advocated so much of truth about the nature of God, and the nature of sin— that we were astonished, and could not help thinking that this man was 'not far from the kingdom of God;' but, alas! he was as much spoiled by 'philo- sophy falsely so called,' as any of them, only in a dif- ferent way.' "We have reason to believe that some impression was made upon many minds. I noticed one old man, several days in succession, sitting and listening atten- tively. I asked him what he thought of what he had 11* 126 MISSIONARY LIFE heard; but he denied being convinced. Still, he evi- dently was much interested, and perhaps will not settle down into the same state of mind in which he was be- fore. Another came to me, and asked me where my house was; and said he would come and see me, and inquire further concerning the doctrine he had heard. He said he resided but twenty miles from here, and was often in on business. I shall hope to see him again. One day, when I was about to go home, a man came forward, and begged I would stay a little while, and answer a question. He addressed me much as follows: 'I know that every man is a sinner; I am so; I have tried every way that the Pandits could tell me ; I have tried everything that the Shastars recom- mend, in order to get rid of my sin. I was very early taught, that taking the name of Ram repeatedly would destroy my sins; and I began to u§e that name: day and night I kept muttering, Ram ! Ram ! Ram ! and I was told by my spiritual guide, that as often as I pronounced that name, so often my sins were by its power cut away from me. But when I asked how this could be true, when I found myself still so sinful — they told me that perhaps I had better try Krishn. So I called upon his name; but still remained sinful. I knew that I was sinful; I felt it in my heart. Then they told me to make offerings, first to this god, then to that; but after doing all, I still found myself sinful. Then they set me on austerities: I tried them, and soon left them off; for I found myself more sinful than ever. Then they recommended pilgrimages, and I have made three long ones, each of which 1 was as- sured had taken away all my sins; but still I was sinful. Last of all, I was sent here to bathe, and told that this ceremony is of such power, that compliance with it will take away the sins of eight hundred thou- sand births. I have bathed, and complied with all requisitions, but I am sinful still ; I feel it in my heart. Now, I have just asked a learned Pandit why this is IN NORTH INDIA. 127 so; and he tells me, that beyond all doubt all my sins are pardoned, but that the seed of sin remains in the heart. I said, Tell me something that will destroy that seed, or keep down the awful growth of sin that arises from it. He told me, There is no such thing; as long as the soul is connected with matter, the seed of sin will remain in it ! Now I have heard you — I have heard that those who really regard the Christian reli- gion, become good men — pure from lying, cheating, the dominion of evil desire, and the like. Indeed, it is manifest that a good Englishman is better than the best of Hindus; and as for the comparison of one with the other, your people are immeasurably better than we are. Tell me, is there any place to which you go, or any ceremony with which you comply, or any austerity which you practise, or any particular mode of worship which you adopt, or any name which you repeat, that has the power to kill the seed of sin in the heart?' " The poor man looked very anxious. I had listened to him in entire silence; his statement of his expe- rience was so clear ; he seemed to have such an uncom- monly correct notion of the 'plague of his heart,' that I was unwilling to interrupt him. When he was done, I told him that we obtain neither righteousness nor sanctification in any of the ways he had mentioned; that the sinfulness of our heart does not depend upon our connection with matter, nor can anything within our power to do, remove it; but the grace of God is freely given to all those who believe in and truly follow the Lord Jesus Christ, to enable them truly to repent of, and forsake their sins; that the seed of sin remains in pious Christians, but that its power is manifestly broken, and day by day grows less and less. I then entreated him to examine Christianity; and told him he would find all that he had been so anxiously seek- ing, only perhaps in a different form and way from what he had expected. He promised me that he would 128 MISSIONARY LIFE examine; told me his name and residence; promised that he would see me again ; and as he lives but thirty- six miles from here, I hope he will. " Beside these cases, there have been two Byragi faqirs inquiring, but soon left. One Paramhans also spent a night with our native Christians, and seemed interested. But nothing, apparently, has resulted from these cases. Many, very many, have appeared inter- ested in a lesser degree. " We have also had opposition : many Pandits have entered the lists against us, and brought forward their philosophy, and made objections to our doctrines; and a great deal of time has been spent in combat- ting with them such doctrines as that God is the author of sin; that he is a sort of universal soul, and speaks in all, &c. Now and then some saucy fellow has bluntly told us, 'You lie, sir!' One faqir told me, 'Sir, you come here and represent your own deota (he meant Christ,) as perfectly pure; and you blacken all of ours; you say they were all sinners; and you say that your one is better and greater than all ours. I am exceedingly angry at you, sir; and I would much like to have the privilege of doing what I like to you. I hate you very much!' And then he gave me from under his matted hair such a glare ! I answered him — 'Brother, if I hated you as you say you do me, I would not take the trouble to come here and offend you. It is love that brings me here. And how have I offended you? I have set before you a sinless Saviour in the place of those who you yourselves say committed sin ; for it is from the Hindus and their Shastars that we have learned the evil doings of your gods; we say nothing of ourselves. Come, accept the sinless Saviour; and then you will love me as much as you now hate me.' He was much softened by this reply, and heard with patience. "Another time I went dow T n into the enclosure of the Ninakshaha faqirs, and went close to their flag- IN NORTH INDIA. 129 staff, and began to preach. They invited me to wor- ship the flag-staff, and were very angry at me for refusing. Shortly after, they invited me to go and sit down on their platform at a little distance, which I did, and there preached. One man roughly inter- rupted me, by saying, I must not come there to tell them about God ; for God was a lie ! a dream ! a thought only ! I reproved him, and went on. Seve- ral of the faqirs were standing about, and grew very angry — two or three even went so far as to talk of beating me. At last they half courteously and half peremptorily invited me to leave the platform, and go to a quiet and sheltered spot, where we could dis- cuss some point at leisure, and be sheltered from the drifting sand. As I was suffering from the sand and heat beyond measure, I gladly accepted of the pro- posal but the cunning fellows led me away through a weary tract of glistening sand, and taking their stand in an open space, where I could not endure the cut- ting sand-drift for a moment, asked me to say on! I begged them to go to a better place ; and they said no place could be better — here was no crowd to inter- rupt us, and no house nor business to take up our attention — say on ! I told them that I perceived they were making game of me; and as I could not stand such exposure, I would leave them, though I knew they would raise the shout of victory as soon as I should move; but that I wished them to notice that I was conquered by sun and sand, and not by their arguments. And as soon as I did turn away, they cried out, 'Oh! you are beaten! Oh! you are afraid !' % "We have not distributed so many books as we hoped to be able to do. Had there been the immense crowd of people we were led to expect, we were pre- pared for them; but now thousands of books we had intended for this occasion are left over for some other. We gave to readers only, and often refused those 130 MISSIONARY LIFE who seemed more anxious to get a large book than to learn what was in our books. " But my letter is already too long, and I have no room for reflections. I would only call on all who read the Chronicle to render hearty thanks for the indication which the occasion has afforded, that the reign of superstition is in a little degree broken up. As I said somewhere before, I shall labour more hopefully now than ever. Our religion is recom- mending itself more and more every year to the peo- ple. Let us give thanks and take courage. " Postscript — Jan. 30. — This is the last bathing day, and I hasten to tell you that the general appear- ance of things is much the same as five days ago. " Since that time two inquirers have come to us ; one at my place and one at the mission-house. It is impossible even to guess how they will turn out. I have set my man, who is a Brahman, immediately at work, to earn his own bread, and shall instruct him. I hope many at home are praying for us here; and that their prayers will be heard, and answered in the giving to us of these men as a spoil torn from the grasp of the great destroyer. " There has been a great man here from Multan, who had got up from Calcutta an immense quantity of cotton shirting cloth,, and has given out to 25,000 (!) faqirs and Brahmans five yards each. The day before yesterday completed his distribution. He gave also to each man about a pound of sweatmeats. The natives are wondering greatly at the great amount of pun (merit) he must have gained. Of course it has afforded us an occasion of explaining what is merit. But in spite of all we can say, the greater part of them probably still think we are dis- tributing books and labouring for pun ourselves. "The natives tell me a story about a native gen- tleman, that sent over a ton in weight of potatoes to one sect of faqirs here, (the Lungaris, I believe,) and IN NORTH INDIA. 131 that when they divided them they were only five potatoes for each man; and they were not generally large either. The consequence was, that the faqirs cursed him as a mean fellow, and no one supposes he got any pun at all. "All the brethren from other stations left us immediately after the great day, but we are still labouring at the Mela as usual." To the above I add a few extracts from an article published relating to the fair of 1850. So many extracts would not be given were it not for the fact that they contain information as to the customs, and opinions, and religion of the natives, that can be communicated in no better way. "This year the mission determined to enlarge, and otherwise make more convenient, the tent in which our labours at the fair are conducted. The old tent was taken to pieces and reconstructed so as to be eight feet high at the sides, twelve feet in the middle, twenty-four feet long, and twenty-one wide. The back, and western end have curtains, to keep us and our congregations from being disturbed by the dusty wind. Behind the poles of the tent and near the back curtains was placed a wooden platform, and on it chairs for the preachers. At the west end, against the curtains, were two large bookshelves, with assorted Hindi tracts and scriptures. On the 9th of January this was set up and has been removed to-day. Since that day I have been there daily, excepting two days, from two to six hours, w r ith my catechist, who has often gone before me, or remained after I left. My young men in the printing office have spent .the greater part of the Sabbath, and of a holiday which I gave them, there, in assisting to distribute books. Mr. Owen and Mr. Munnis have been there with less regularity indeed, because they were obliged to keep the exercises at the school going on — but so much as to do good service; and their young men have been 132 MISSIONARY LIFE engaged as mine were— some of them also making addresses to, and conducting arguments with the Hindus most effectually. I am sorry that we could not all be there all the time — but the school could not be neglected, lest, after the demoralizing excitement of the mela, the city students should either not return to school, or come so dissipated as to be unfit for study ; and I was kept at home every day longer than I wished by pressing business connected with the printing office. u We are too few here. Three of us, when all well, and having nothing to attend to but our ordinary labours, can but barely carry on those operations that are constantly pressing upon us. If one of us were to become sick, something urgent must be neglected. And when extra work is to be done, as at this fair, it causes neglect and injury to all our opera- tions, and is itself not well done. Will the Church have us go forward, or backwards? If forward, then she must speedily send out men to us. "But we were not left entirely by ourselves in this work. Mr. Smith of the Baptist Mission at Benares, who has been here at every fair for nearly thirty years; and Mr. Small of the same mission, were here for about eight days. " Besides the preaching in the tent, when several of us were present, some would take their places at the side of the road, behind the crowd in the tent, and there gather another congregation. Some took ad- vantage of the shade of a tree not far distant, and soon were able to collect a ring of hearers. Two or three of us took our places together, and relieved each other. " The number of pilgrims has been small, compared with what it was several years ago. It has been fall- ing off for some time ; but I do not know that there were many less this year than for two years last past. Our native assistants thought there were less. But IN NORTH INDIA. 133 certain facts afforded me much gratification. I. will mention a few of them. " 1. We have never been treated so civilly by the people as this year. Only two men and one boy, as far - as I know, have been rude or abusive. One of them is an ignorant old man, a religious beggar ; one the son of a Brahman in the city, to whom I declined to give a book ; and one a man who has some quarrel with the government, and supposed I was its servant. The people generally heard with the greatest attention and respect; and, even when they were disputing earnestly in favour of their own" practices, were uni- formly respectful. 44 2. We found many who were already acquainted with many of our books ; and it seemed to me, that in this respect encouraging progress has been made. 44 3. Several persons attended at the tent for many days, and showed a great deal of interest. One read through one of our largest books, and talked much about it. Two others offered to become Christians on the spot, and came to my house to talk about it; but I advised them to examine the matter farther before breaking caste, as I was not satisfied with their know- ledge, and had some reason to doubt the purity of their motives. 44 4. A respectable looking man told us that he had a brother at home, who several years ago received books, while on a visit to Benares. He said that his brother had never seen a missionary since he received the books; but that he had left off all the rites of Hinduism, and constantly told his family and neigh- bours that there could be no salvation out of Christ — prays daily to Christ, and is honest, peaceable and happy. I asked him where his brother lives, and his name. He said his name is Madan Mohan, and he lives at the village of Bhanra, forty miles west of Gwalior. I asked him, 4 Why do you not believe with your brother ?' and he answered, ' I go with the world ; 12 134 MISSIONARY LIFE I have always wondered at my brother's singularity/ We do not know how many 'hidden ones' Christ may be thus gathering to himself, who do not make a pro- fession of Christianity, because they do not know how to go about it. "5. We have never had so many people inquiring about astronomical and other scientific facts, which give the lie to the sacred books of the Hindus. Many times I have been called on to state the reasons for believing the world to be round, and to show why we do not believe that there is any Mount Meru, or the seven concentric oceans; and also to explain the theory of eclipses. This is a most effectual puzzler of the Hindus; for their confidence in the Pandits is in a great degree founded on the fact that they fore- tell eclipses ; and the Shastars, from which the Pandits derive their learning, are for the same reason held in the greatest veneration and esteem. But the Hindus are taught that the moon is twice as far from the earth as the sun is. Then, when we explain to them the true state of the case, they are much astonished, and very incredulous. But we are able to present the subject in such a manner as to shake the blind faith of not a few. Company after company came to me, telling me that they had heard that the English say, that certain scientific facts make their Shastars appear to be erroneous; and I took great care not to let the opportunity slip to impress upon them the reasonable- ness of doubt about the religious teachings of books that manifestly err in matters of science of which they treat. I believe that we in this see the influence of English schools and European science — even of the faint rumour of it that is spreading through the whole country, as the twilight precedes the rising of the sun. And it should be remembered that our religious books have not failed to refer to these scientific errors of the Shastars, and to call on the Hindus to examine these matters for themselves. IN NORTH INDIA. 135 " 6. Several of the lads from our school were pre- sent, at different times, and showed much friendship to us, in the presence of the other natives. One of them rendered me essential service one day, in trying the literary pretensions of those who asked for books; and he took up an argument earnestly for us, when assailed by others for helping us. This boy has to cross a ferry to come to school: and the lessee of the ferry gives him a free passage. This, for a Hindu, is great liberality, especially when we consider that the Hindus know the object and tendency of the school. "7. I heard a great many of the Hindus speaking about the tax that was formerly levied on the pil- grims; and wondering how it is that now there is no tax, the attendance should fall off. Such seems to be the fact. It would appear that the bathing-place has lost something of its importance from being freely thrown open to all. Many ask if the tax will not be reimposed, and what was the reason for taking it off; and when they hear that pious people l through ab- horrence of idolatry, forced the government to aban- don its unholy gains, their astonishment and curiosity are unbounded. " 8. I do not know that one Pryagw£l has ventured to oppose us this year. They are the Brahmans who officiate at this bathing-place. Formerly, they used to come and order our hearers away, and curse and revile us; but they now seem to have a wholesome dread of the arguments levelled at them, and keep out of the way. Formerly, long rows of Pandits' seats also used to be seen, and they were generally surrounded by rings of people listening, who used to compliment the Pandits with rupees and copper coin in abundance. This year I saw but few; and one, whose table I examined, had only some small heaps of coarse flour and grain on it. " I might mention many other little encouraging m 136 MISSIONARY LIFE circumstances; but these are enough for the present. It is evident that Hinduism is dying; but it is equally evident that with present means it will last for ages yet. And if the process of decay were more rapid, what would be the consequence? what would take its place? It is clear that there is no instrumentality in this country, nor likely soon to be, at all adequate to build up anything better in the room of it, if it were soon to fall. * * * * # * # "May the Church look at all these facts — and pray! May theological students look at this field, and come over and help us ! If both these things be done, how soon shall 'one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight!' " At a later date I sent the following letter to be published in America. It is introduced here because of its connection with the fair at Allahabad. "I have recently received a letter from a friend at Jubbulpore in Central India, which contains the fol- lowing paragraphs, from which those at home, who love the cause of Foreign Missions, will learn that the truth is working its way here in spite of all obstacles: and that in many cases there may be a work of grace going on where we least suspect it. " ; Can you let me have an Old Testament, or even Bible complete, in Hindi? I wish very much to give it to an old man, once a high caste Brahman Pandit, who has flung off the faith of his forefathers and strives for the light of truth. He would be the first fruit for any man of God, who would establish a mis- sion there, but he is weak in his views of things, and needs assistance. I think he has readjust so far that he still risks a shipwreck of faith, and that to prevent this, a Bible complete is wanted. .... As yet he has read by scraps and odds and ends. He knows much of Old Testament history, and I have set him to studying the Psalms. He has many difficulties to IN NORTH INDIA. 137 contend with from man. His wife is still a heathen, and he tells me her taunts and sneers are bitter as gall, and of the grossest description; but still he keeps to her, and I believe from real love. He has one child, an interesting little girl about eight years old, whom he has taught to read, and instructed in the Scriptures as far as he is able. She is a very inter- esting child, and has an amount of character seldom met with in a native ; and she apparently only requires to be trained to walk in the Christian path to keep it. Naturally very quick and intelligent, she has become more so under her father's tuition; and I should really feel most thankful if you could send me down a few Hindi tracts for this couple, suited to their capacities. "' Strange to say, my friend the Pandit was first set to inquiring, after hearing a discourse, about eight years ago at Allahabad, where he had gone to do puja (worship,) and to take a dip in Tribeni ji (a title of the sacred junction of rivers.) He says one of your mission was the man, but who he cannot say; but the gist of the case is, that an argument occurred between the minister and some Brahman priests, on their Veds and the Bible, in which they were worst- ed, and, as he himself says, 'myself shaken.' The old man has studied the Koran, and the Cazee here has made desperate attempts to convert him; but he tells the Cazee to let him know whence Mohammed obtained his laws, &c, so far as they are good for anything, if not from the Bible. If yes, then the Bible is true, and the Koran is made up of truths borrowed and lies invented, both blended to de- ceive.' " "I will add but little to these paragraphs; they speak for themselves. But it is a great encourage- ment to us, who cast our bread on the waters here. Eight years pass in this case, and then we hear of the effect of one of our discourses in the old mela* 12* 138 MISSIONARY LIFE tent at Allahabad. Each one of our mission, who was there that year, may say, 'Perhaps that sermon was mine!' and it is not likely that we shall know whose it was till the end. There is great encourage- ment in this to labour at melas. In this case the truth was carried three hundred miles. Again, look at the effect of the smallest influence of the Bible. I have never heard of a Hindu teaching a daughter to read; but no sooner does this man take an interest in the Scriptures, than his affections are directed towards his daughter, as they never otherwise would have been; his prejudice against female learning vanishes; she acquires a character different from that of other Hindu girls, and altogether there is a great change. My informant is a military officer, who is not likely to be imposed upon. His special duties now are such as to require more than ordinary dis- cernment and sagacity. So we may feel a good degree of confidence in his opinion. " The fair next in importance is that held early in April of each year at Hardwar. In 1853 I attended at this fair, and afterward published a short account of it, which is here repeated. Having given some account of my previous engagements, the article proceeds: "Being thus released from the church, I thought of the mela at Hardwar as affording a place for labour amongst the natives, the importance of which is very great: and the expense of travelling in that direction being much less than formerly, with the advice and consent of the brethren I determined to attend the fair. I accordingly went from Agra to Saharunpur, and from there went to Hardwar, in company with Messrs. Campbell, Caldwell, and Jamieson. I am aware that accounts of the Hardwar mela have often been published, and that I may say many things that have been said before; but still the readers of the Record are changing every year, and repetitions are IN NORTH INDIA. 139 not always profitless. I will therefore describe briefly our proceedings. "On the way to Hardwar, we spent a night at Roorkhee. This is on the great canal, which is being made by the government, to run from Hardwar, to lead the waters of the Ganges down the height of land between the Ganges and Jumna, for the purpose of irrigating the land. At Roorkhee large engineer- ing operations are rendered necessary by a rapid fall in the land. Workshops were at first established here for this reason ; the best practical engineers -were gathered by the same cause ; and this suggested to the government the idea of setting up here a col- lege especially for the training of civil engineers. Accordingly a large school has been gathered here, consisting partly of intelligent and promising soldiers drawn from the European regiments serving in this country, and partly of European, East Indian, and native youths, some on stipends, and some support- ing themselves. A large station has thus grown up, interesting from the fact that nowhere else in this country is European science and machinery so ex- tensively exhibited and applied. After a cursory examination of this place in the morning, and a call upon the Principal of the college, w T e proceeded. Spent the night at the house of a young gentleman, one of the superintendents of the canal, and the next morning drove into Hardwar. "I found this place close under the eastern extrem- ity of the Siwalik range. This is a low T range of hills, separated from the mountainous region by a distance of from four to ten miles, enclosing a valley, called here a dun, generally level. Through the eastern end of this valley the Ganges, after its de- bouche from the mountains, makes its way into the plains, turning the east end of the Sitfalik hills* On the other side of the Ganges, other mountains closely approach the river, giving it the appearance of an 140 MISSIONARY LIFE opening through which the celebrated river makes its first debut, as it were, amongst the busy haunts of men. This pass through the hills may be considered a gate, or door, without any great stretch of fancy; and ac- cordingly the Hindus call it Itari, (a title of Shiva) and Dwar, (a gate, or entrance) — Hardwar, the gate of Shiva, or, as some say, of Vishnu, for both are called Hari. The town is not large ; I should suppose it contains not over five hundred houses of all kinds. The ground is very uneven, and back of the town it is covered in places by scattered trees and scrubby bushes. Everywhere are plentifully strewed rolled boulders of stone, brought down by mountain torrents. On the whole., it is as comfortless and desolate looking a place as one could easily find. "We found our tent just being pitched in as good a place as the desolation afforded, a short distance back of the town, and near a Hindu temple, at which resided some religious beggars. About three years ago a man was carried off from this temple by a tiger. Some little distance from the tent, and close to the main road, we put up the preaching-tent. This has a large square top, with curtains hanging down, which could be drawn out in a sloping direction when desira- ble; and the sides were generally so arranged that we could be seen by those passing. Along the back part of this tent our boxes of books were arranged. Mats of a very coarse and cheap quality were spread down to induce our hearers to seat themselves and hear leisurely. The first day was passed in complet- ing these preparations. The people had not begun to gather much. " Towards evening Mr. Campbell and I walked through the town to the bathing-place. This place is not on the main stream of the Ganges, but on a lazy, shallow branch, looking dirty and disgusting, and, though spread out at the bathing-place to the width of perhaps six perches, not more than two in width a IN NORTH INDIA. 141 little way below. The ghat, as a flight of steps lead- ing down to the water is called, is about the width of an ordinary street in a town in America, and consists of about seventy steps. Along one side of this pas- sage is a series of small temples, the greater part of which contain only the filthy emblem of Shiva. We went through some of the passages connected with these, and stopped in a kind of balcony overlooking the bathing-place. Brahmans had wooden platforms, on posts long enough to keep the boards a little way out of the water, placed in the river, where they sat to receive the gifts of the faithful, and to touch with their holy hands the bathers. Several people were bathing, many of them women. It was curious to observe the skill with which the women managed the slight clothing which they wore into the water, so as to make very little of an indecent exposure of their persons; and the nonchalance with which men re- garded it all. We saw neither curiosity, nor imper- tinence, which might be supposed to be perfectly natural in the circumstances. How national habits modify ideas! Circumstances that in our country would cause women either to be regarded with disgust, or treated with uproarious fun and rudeness, were here witnessed without emotion, and passed utterly without remark. Here we commenced labour; we all talked with some of the people around us; and one of the native assistants made a regular speech or harangue, which was listened to with good-natured patience at least. " The next morning we commenced regular opera- tions : as there were four missionaries and three native assistants, we divided the company — two of us, with one assistant, and some books, took up a position on the bank of the river, where there was much passing and repassing, under the shade of a tree. The others went to the preaching-tent. Our usual course was, to commence a conversation with some one, and thus in- 142 MISSIONARY LIFE duce several to stop and hear; then one of us began preaching. When one was tired, another took it up; and when all had spoken once, we usually tried the reading powers of applicants for books and tracts. Afterwards we spoke again; and when we had thus spent two, or two and a half hours, we went to the tent, rested, wrote letters, and talked; and after an early dinner went out again, and did the same thing as in the morning. On one occasion, Mr. Campbell and I, with an assistant, w r ent to the top of the bath- ing-ghat and preached ; but the crowd had by that time become so great, and the noise so powerful, that we did not think it the better place, though many more crowded about us to hear, than at other places. Besides the regular harangues, or sermons, as they may be called, we had frequent conversations and discussions. The time was well employed. The at- tendance of the people on the preaching was good, and we had usually as many gathered around us as could hear. There was, as there always is, a good deal of coming and going amongst our hearers; but generally the greater part would stand or sit through our sermons. Some came repeatedly, a few to dis- pute, and many with seeming real desire to hear. "For nine days we followed this course. The peo- ple were increasing till the last: they would, however, scatter away fast on the day that we left. Our last day was the Sabbath, April 10th. We had a solemn closing service in the preaching-tent; discourses were delivered, reviewing what we had taught the people; particular instructions and exhortations were given to those who had attended often ; and the services were closed by a public prayer. As I stood on a box, offering that prayer, I could not help thinking how comforting was the thought, that in some parts of the world God's people might be offering their supplications in the sanctuary, and remembering us; and I also wished that the time might soon come, IN NORTH INDIA. 143 when churches and ordinances shall give the heathen more opportunities of witnessing the decencies and beauties of true worship." t I have attended several minor fairs, continuing from one to three days ; but the nature of our work at those places does not materially differ from that above described, and my space will not allow any description of them to be given, beyond the following, which is too singular, and too little known, to be suppressed. Behind the English station of Agra there is a place of great Musalman sanctity. They have a stone there, in which they say is an impression of Mohammed's foot. They call it Qadam ar-Rasul, the Foot of the Apostle; Qadam i mubarak, the Blessed Foot; and Qadam i sharif, the Honourable, or Exalted Foot. The word qadam may also be rendered footprint. The stone containing this pre- cious relic is kept in what nearly corresponds to a Roman Catholic monastery. There is a square of about sixty yards on a side, the whole front a mass of buildings of two low stories, and the other three sides a high dead wall: this is the external appear- ance. The interior of this square is filled up to the' height of the first story of the front, and paved with flagstones. The rooms in the lower story have, consequently, no doors or windows behind, being merely separate apartments for travellers who may choose to lodge there, and are entered from the front. In the centre of the front a staircase leads up to the paved area. This also gives access to the upper story of the front, which is divided into rooms with balconies. These are for a higher class of visit- ors, and for the beggars who own the place. All around the other three sides of the quadrangle, fac- ing the paved area, are cloisters built against the wall — a shallow verandah with little rooms. In the centre of the area is a small temple, shaped precisely 144 MISSIONARY LIFE like the most common Hindu temples, in which the Blessed and Honourable Footprint is kept, and wor- shipped with all the ceremonies that Hindus use. Not the low and ignorant Mohammedans only, but multitudes of the intelligent also, worship this sense- less lie; and, which is singular, it is an object of great regard to the Hindus. Here the proud and fierce monotheist bows down to a stone beside the besotted polytheist ; and the learned and the ignorant hustle and push one another. Mr. Pullerton went out with me, and we spent two days there at the time of the annual meld. People worship there at all times ; but there are two or three special days on which thousands assemble. We preached a great deal. One of the days was Sunday, and we laboured all the time we could speak. A singular circum- stance that occurred here, will illustrate some of our difficulties. We were speaking of the way of obtain- ing justification, and I quoted Gal. iii. 13, " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." The men immediately around us were intelligent and educated. One of them instantly said, " That is blasphemy: Jesus, on him be peace! is the greatest of all prophets, save the blessed apostle Mohammed, on him be peace ! — and to say that he was made a curse, is to charge God with injustice and folly, and to treat the name of a prophet — on him be peace ! — with contumely and scorn. You, sir, profess to be his follower, and yet say such a horrible thing about him." I explained ; but no sooner had I come to anything like an expression of the idea that he was the substitute for his people, and accursed in their stead, than my opponent broke out with, " Refrain, sir ! I am well disposed to treat Christians with some regard as ' people of a book/ and you personally as one who seems to wish to be civil and kind; and you must not utter such a slander of a prophet — on him be peace ! — lest I should forget IN NORTH INDIA. 145 myself, and draw my sword on you, and you be mas- sacred by my justly indignant brethren." Here was a dilemma. To be reproved by a Mohammedan for treating my own dear Saviour, whose cause I was maintaining, with disrespect, was something new. I had often heard the doctrine objected to ; but never before had I known this peculiar turn given to it. I avoided the term that they objected to; but went on to talk of the doctrine of substitution, and to illustrate it from the Old Testament, till after nine o'clock in the evening. There is a stone of this kind near Allahabad, in a temple like that described above, but in a much less sumptuous enclosure. Formerly it was venerated as much as that at Agra; but during the last generation the revenues have fallen off, and the heirs of the property have become troopers in the English army, leaving their shrine to neglect. But it is very likely that some one will by and by pretend a miracle at this place, and thus restore its credit, and get it again into public favour. This stone I have more than once examined. The foot-print is so clumsily made that it is a wonder that the most ignorant and unre- flecting cannot see that it is artificial. The one at Agra I did not examine, because they would not allow me to go inside the temple with my boots on. There are at Agra several descendants of Greek, Syrian and Armenian Christians. Their blood is very freely mixed with Hindustani, but they are still known by their national names. In the house of one of these I preached in Hindustani on Sabbath mornings. The audience consisted of his family, the family of our catechist, the servants of our own and a few other families, a few native Christians, and an irregular number of the Orientals above named. An interest- ing fact is connected with these people. Shortly after Mr. Perkins and his companions reached Oor- 13 146 MISSIONARY LIFE omiah, in Persia, a Nestorian of that region went to India to seek his fortune, and has remained there ever since, residing at Agra for several years past. He has maintained a correspondence with his people at home, and received accounts of what the mission- aries to the Nestorians were doing and teaching. The accounts struck him favourably. He had an opportunity in India also of learning what Protest- antism is. Then he became intimate with the Arme- nian family, in whose house I afterward set up Hin- dustani worship, and told them so much about what he had heard that they too became Protestant. The children of both families are now being brought up at Protestant schools and churches. No facts could more forcibly illustrate the far-reaching effects of missions. In addition to the modes and opportunities of preaching above mentioned, we are often able to pro- claim the gospel to visitors at our houses. A great many used to call on me, and many interesting facts, connected with their visits, our conversations, and visits made by me in return, might be added; but this chapter is long enough. They who read it will fully understand our modes of preaching at our stations. It will also be seen, that the missionary force is at no place adequate to perform the work we have to do. It is my most earnest desire that one effect of this book may be, to convince the churches that, however much we have already done, it is still miserably inadequate to the great end proposed. IN NORTH INDIA. 147 CHAPTER VI. ITINERATIONS. The subject of this chapter is related to that of the preceding — both are on preaching, our main work, and that which is most delightful. During the cool season, from the first of November to the first of March, there is no difficulty in travelling about the country; and this period may be made a month, or even two, longer, without any very great inconvenience. During this time, all missionaries desire to do what can be done towards carrying the gospel to the parts of their dis- tricts which cannot be reached when they reside at their stations. The only way of accomplishing this work is by itinerations. All persons who have read the journals of missiona- ries in Upper India, written on journeys for preaching, w r ill remember that we usually travel with tents ; and all will perceive, that when travellers use tents, their movements will be restricted and expensive. Now, as this book is written for the purpose of enabling all readers to understand our whole situation, and modes of action, we will first look into a missionary's march- ing establishment, and set forth the reasons for using it, and each part of it. There are no hotels in India. A few at the princi- pal English stations, on the main road leading through the country, are an inconsiderable exception. There is nothing like the numerous taverns on all roads in America. Two substitutes for them may be mentioned. The first is the Dak Bungalow, or staging-house. These houses are built by the government; and a cook, and one or two other servants, are paid to remain there, and serve travellers, who are charged each one rupee a day for the house and servants, and furnish their 148 MISSIONARY LIFE own food. Each room has a table, a bedstead, and a few chairs, but no bedding, towels, &c. They are built at distances of about forty miles, on some roads, to accommodate those who travel with relays of bearers, that distance being about what is convenient for one night. On some other roads, they are from twelve to sixteen miles apart, and intended to encourage travel- ling without tents by those who move with their ow r n private conveyances. But they are often placed far from the villages, and are not suitable for the purposes of the missionary, who wishes to stop where most people are to be found. They are so numerous only on the Grand Trunk road and one of its branches. The second substitute for taverns is the Sara — the caravansary of European travellers. These, in India, are walled enclosures, with huts around the inside of the walls. They are usually frequent enough to an- swer our purposes on the principal roads, if that were all, as no distance of ten miles is often without one. In them will be found a seller of flour and grain, one of wood, and some Bhathiyaras, or Musalman cooks, who will furnish native food to any who will eat it at their hands. These places are generally built by land- holders, who receive rent from the Bhathiyaras, and secure a considerable market for grain, wood, straw, clarified butter, &c. The Bhathiyara derives his in- come from the fees paid* by travellers. Every ox, or horse, or vehicle, or traveller, pays a trifle for being allowed to spend the night within the walls. Each person who takes an apartment, pays for that; bed- steads are rented, and a profit is made on food. We might'halt in these places, if they were better. But the apartments are mud hovels, with only a door and tiled roof, hot, and disagreeable. The yard nearly resembles an American barnyard, and is used for many of the same purposes. It is filled with all kinds of people — riotous, quarrelling, and obscene — each cook- ing over his separate fire; and too often bad women IN NORTH INDIA. 149 and their visitors make up a large part of the com- pany. A regard to either health or character will not allow us to occupy them. Thus we usually have no choice, but are obliged to carry tents. The unsocial system of caste entirely prevents strangers from using private houses or articles of fur- niture. Hinduism utterly destroys every fragment of the virtue of hospitality; and so does caste-infected Mohammedanism, such as is found in India. Sometimes the missionary travels without his fam- ily, when two very small tents will answer his purpose ; but if his family be with him, the tents need to be larger. Those that I had at last were each thirteen feet square. There must be two of them, because it takes the greater part of a day to strike, remove to the next stage, and pitch one; and we cannot be with- out shelter in the mean time. I never had any doubt of the propriety of carrying my family with me, when- ever its circumstances allowed me to do so. They, who are not acquainted with the effect of living in tents, and marching a few miles frequently, in the cold season of Upper India, would be astonished at the marvellous rapidity of the improvement that takes place in the health, after the system has been debili- tated by the long months of heat. I am fully per- suaded that, had not my health and that of my fam- ily been assisted by this process, we could never have remained in India as we did. It costs a little more than for a man to go alone, but not much; and it saves him from taking his horse altogether away from his family, leaving them imprisoned for want of it ; and it also saves him from the expense of a divided household and two tables, which his salary cannot usually bear. Besides these considerations it should be remembered, that expeditions of this sort afford a missionary lady almost her only opportunity for mov- ing about, and escaping from the monotony of a place, which, however long she may live in it, never seems 13* 150 MISSIONARY LIFE to be home; since, however much attached to her fam- ily and work, her heart will always turn towards the privileges, the friends, and the churches of her native land. Two carts are necessary to carry the tents. With one the articles required at night are sent; and with the other the food, table and its furniture, cooking utensils, &c. The usual plan of moving is this: — After dinner, about three o'clock, the dishes, cooking utensils, and day furniture generally, are packed up and sent forward with one tent. The cook usually goes with it. The boxes of clothes and tracts are so divided as to make the loads as equal as possible. This load is carried forward to the next halting place, previously fixed upon as near as may be, and proba- bly arrives after dark. The people choose a place under some trees, or where they may find the best accommodation, and sleep without unloading the cart. This is done early in the morning, the tent set up, the cook proceeds to make breakfast acccording to an order previously given, and the table is set up, and the chairs dusted. After the one tent is sent away in this manner in the afternoon, the missionary and catechist go out to a village; and, if they are not far apart, two may be visited and preached to before dark. Then they re- turn, and find a tea-kettle singing, and some cups, and bread and butter, which are kept behind for the night, all laid out. The table is probably set up out- side of the tent, and the stars look down on us, while the coolness and freedom of the open air, in such strong contrast with the hot weather and closed house which we have so recently felt, are highly en- joyed. After tea a slow walk under the mango trees, or on the open plain, as the case may be, or a talk with visitors, closes the action of the day. While the gentleman is gone to the villages in the afternoon, the IN NORTH INDIA, 151 lady has the tent transformed from sitting-room to bedroom. In the morning the family leaves the ground early, in the buggy, and the catechist on his pony; and they arrive about the time the advanced tent is ready for their reception. Breakfast and morning worship al- most inmmediately follow. The missionary and cate- chist then go out to the villages, and visit one or more, as the sun and the distances allow. When they return the cook will have got the catechist's breakfast ready. The natives all like to eat a slight meal about noon, and rarely touch anything earlier. The catechist will have his dinner — almost his whole day's eating— in the evening, later than we usually have our tea. After returning from the forenoon duty, we rest, read, write, or receive visitors, until dinner. In many places, all the persons, who have any claim to be called gentle- men, will come to see us. We then spread a thick carpet under a tree, and invite them to sit down; and generally have a long conversation on religion, and give them tracts and Scriptures. The head policeman of the neighbourhood comes, and requests orders, as to provisions, watchmen, or anything that we may require ; though in most places all that he can supply us with is coarse flour. Schoolmasters come to beg tracts for their boys to read, and often bring a number of their cleverest boys to show. Their parents would be very unwilling that their boys should be Christians; but if they can save a few cents by begging Christian tracts for reading books, instead of buying something else, they will take the risk. Sometimes the tent is surrounded w T ith visitors, and we are prevented from having the least quiet before eight or nine o'clock in the evening. I ought also to say, that on many of these tours, a march is not made every day. The tents are pitched in some place where several villages are near, and the 152 MISSIONARY LIFE gospel is preached in a circle of them for two or three days; after which another such circle is sought for. The furniture that is carried on these occasions is all made especially for this purpose. Common tables and chairs would soon have all their legs knocked off; and therefore everything is made to fold up. In this way the articles occupy less space. They are coarse and cheap; for anything handsome would immediately have all its beauty rubbed off. This description of itinerating will certainly appear very attractive to any person who reads it : but it should be remembered, that all the complicated ar- rangements described are liable to accident and con- fusion. The stupidity of a servant, the breaking of a cart, the sickness of an ox, and misinformation as to the route, are constantly causing annoyances, that need to be experienced to be understood; and yet it is pleasant to go out in this way. On my return to India, I hope it may please God to allow me to spend all of every cold season in this work. And now, that the whole matter may be understood as far as possible, extracts from my accounts of itine- rating, heretofore published, will be inserted here. These extracts are somewhat numerous, because they are intended to give examples of all kinds of our expe- rience, together with incidental information concerning the people, their manners and ideas. "We marched from Futtehpore to Arapore. Here we met Mr. C, who is taking up his children to Bareil- ly. His wife came to Allahabad, where her rela- tives lived, last year, and there died of consumption. Through the kindness of Providence, I was permitted to be useful to her during her sickness. I trust she was a true Christian before her illness; but she was in much darkness, and doubt, and fear; and it was my privilege to visit her many times, and lead her into the green pastures, and beside the still waters. She died in great peace, leaving to her friends a sweet hope IN NORTH INDIA. 153 that she rests in Jesus. Her husband was with her the last fortnight of her life, and was much struck w T ith what he saw ; and his impressions resulted, as I think, in true conversion. I have had letters from hirn since, which have given me great pleasure ; and the interview of to-day has been very satisfactory. He seems fully sensible of his sinfulness, and speaks with delight of the love of Christ. He is in a position to give him influence among his class; and I hope the good already done will by no means stop here. My conversation with him prevented my going out to preach." " Sabbath. — Arrived at this place, Etawah, last evening. This morning early went to the masonry landings, of w T hich there are several here, and at which many people were bathing, and read and preached to a good audience for about an hour. My preaching place was the platform of a Brahman, who sits here to furnish worshippers with several little things that they require. He had a small stone, on w T hich he ground sandal-wood, a little of the powder of which is often thrown into the river as an offering, and often carried, by those who have finished their bath, up to the temples of Mahadeo on the bank of the stream, to be used in a little worship of him, which they take occasion to do as they return home. He had, also, preparations of chalk and red lead for those who required to renew their tilaks, signs of the idol or incarnation specially followed by the worship- pers, or of the peculiar subdivisions of their sect. There were metal stamps also, to assist in making these marks, many of which are too complicated to be readily made in any other way. Those who required his assistance gave him what they pleased — some a very little grain, some a few cowries, and some gave each a copper. He was very affable, and afforded me all the facilities for being heard that I desired. A Brahman who stood by, took a tract at my request, 154 MISSIONARY LIFE and read a page or two to the people. A Niinak- shaha fakir took my part, and testified to the earthly origin of the Ganges and Jumna, when I asserted it. 44 After breakfast went into the centre of the native city, about a mile and a half from the river. Talked to several groups of people; furnished a Mohammedan school with a few books, which the teacher promised to read and allow his pupils to read. Did the same to a Hindu school, on the same conditions. 64 Several people came to us in the course of the day for books. At one time I had so many present that I went out and sat down in the shade, and had a good deal of talk with them." "In the afternoon we went to a market at the east- ern end of the city; but found that it was not fre- quented; and though nicely built, a failure. We walked up into the city, and preached to a very good audience near where we first preached here the other day. The audience were uncommonly solemn and attentive ; the young man who called me an infidel the other day was present, and perfectly quiet, and staid to hear both Hanuk and myself preach. "Thus we close this visit to Futtehpore. We have fairly proclaimed the gospel to crowds in its streets at six different points; carried on many interesting con- versations ; and given a tract or two to every one who appeared to ask for them earnestly, and proved able to read on trial. " "I met a man here to-day who had been a long time absent on a pilgrimage to Graya, Ajudhiya, Brij- nath, Jagathnath, and minor places. The man's mind seemed entirely dissipated; not in the ordinary sense of the term, but gone ; his knees trembled under him, his eyes were bleared, the corners of his mouth fallen down, his power of attending to what I said, almost nothing, and his answers the most childish and fruit- less that I ever heard from, a man not very old. I asked him what the matter was. He did not know IN NORTH INDIA. 155 that anything was the matter— his mind, he supposed, was as good as ever. Other natives came around, and told me he was simply worn out by long travel and excitement — that the case was quite a common one, and that the man w r ould never recover— would per- haps get home, dawdle about a little while, and die. Truly Satan is a hard master! And does not the case of this poor man rebuke us? Here was a strong, middle-aged man, who had forsaken his home, no doubt reduced his family almost or quite to poverty, and literally worn himself out in the service (as he thought) of God; while a very little hardship is 'a lion in the way' to us, who have so many more, and so much better, motiyes urging us to devoted lives!" "About sunset, visited a new and handsome temple of Mahadeo, on the bank of the river, The Hindu Pantheon is largely represented by paintings in one of the verandahs. Saw here, for the first time, the Hindu cupid, Kam Deo, armed like the Grecian one, with bow and arrows, aiming at a woman in bed. Two female attendants, sitting by, are joining hands in entreaty to him not to hurt their mistress. This cupid is a big burly fellow, blue like Krishn, dressed most unclassically in a breech-cloth and turban. The temple is a very pretty piece of architecture, and fur- nished, in addition to the usual lingam, with a large marble image of Shiw, w T ith his wife Parbati at his side. These figures are dressed up in native fashion, with abundance of cloth. While I was looking at it they commenced their evening worship — the ringing of bells and beating of drums, together with the offer- ing of lamps. Ran away, lest the lookers on should suppose I was joining in the service, or at least did not feel any repugnance to it." " When we got to the tent we found it pitched in an old rice field. A glance showed me that, if it should rain, we were sure to be flooded; because rice is never cultivated except where water will stand. 156 MISSIONARY LIFE But as it was too late to do better, we had to make the best of it. Just at dark the other tent came up, and we had all our people and goods together. At this moment it began to rain. We made all haste, and put up the second tent, so that all might be shel- tered who could. During the greater part of the night we had a very violent wind, but no heavy rain till about five in the morning, w T hen it began to pour down seriously. The cartmen, the horses, &c, had to stay out in it all. "At day-break, we got up, and threw up a ridge of clay around the tents. Got breakfast for ourselves by making a fire in one of the tents; but the poor people could not cook there, on account of their caste ; so they wrapped all the clothes they had around their heads and shoulders, and sat down to fast till the rain should abate. It began to rain less about eleven o'clock; and I then, pitying the people, sent a rupee to the nearest shop and bought parched grain, which was distributed amongst them. All castes could eat this, as it is not contaminated by touch. " " About four o'clock went to Ismail Ganj, a large village. This was a market day there. Made a great mistake in supposing the greater part of the people would be Musalmans, and consequently took far too few Hindi books. Found the people very anxious to hear, and to get books. But the market was so noisy we could not be heard very well, and we had so few Hindi books that we could not supply the readers. Preached as well and as long as we could, and pro- mised the people that we would come again to-morrow morning. Coming out of the town saw a man wor- shipping a Brahman. Attacked them both on the absurdity and wickedness of their conduct. A crowd gathered around us, and we had a very fair opportu- nity of preaching, which we improved as well as we could. Staid till the approach of night put a stop to our labours. Walked back to the tent— very tired.'' IN NORTH INDIA. 157 " Another class worth noticing was that of the faqirs, or religious beggars. They were of all kinds, though not so numerous as I should have found them had I come a few days earlier. These are generally sure to be at the mela soon enough, so that they may gather a long and full harvest. One day, while we w r ere in the tent, I heard an altercation outside: one of my servants trying to drive away some one. The servant said there was a lady in the tent, giving this as a reason why the other should go immediately. He answered, ' Then tell them to give me something, or I will not go.' I went out to see what was the matter, and there was a Hindu holy man, entirely naked. I would not have noticed him if he had worn the usual narrow strip of cloth ; but this fellow had not even that. He was one of those who profess to have over- come all natural feelings, whether of the body or of the mind, and to have attained to a state of complete innocence and holiness, and of consequent insensibility to shame and pain. I could not forbear putting his boasted insensibility to the proof, by pelting him with small stones, of which a plenty were lying by the side of the tent — very ragged ones too. He soon gave in, cried for mercy, and ran off like a deer. Had his nakedness been the result of misfortune, it would have deserved, and should have received, different treat- ment. I have had these men tell me, when I asked them who they were, 'lama clergyman, (padri,) the same as you are.' " "We marched to Kassiya, where I received letters from Allahabad, and learned the melancholy news of brother Walter M. Lowrie's death in China. What an admonition to us all to be doing our work while it is day ! I have no doubt he was doing with his might whatever he could; and that he is blessed in thus fall- ing at his post, and being called early to his reward. " In the afternoon I went into the town of Kassiya, and preached. I asked the people if they would re- 14 158 MISSIONARY LIFE ceive a native assistant, give him a room to stay in a fortnight, and listen to him honestly, if I would send him. They said they most certainly would. I won- der if we ought not to employ our native assistants in this way sometimes." " After breakfast this morning, went into the town and preached. Gave away a few books. The people heard with great attention. One man set himself up as my opponent, but had nothing to say, save taking up every assertion of mine and turning it against me by the use of the formula— ■' That is a lie when you apply it to us; you do so yourself.' I was at last obliged to tell him that one gentleman could not talk in this manner to another, at which he took offence and went away." " Marched from Arapore to Futtehpore. On the way, learned that there was a mela going on near the road, under such circumstances as made it desirable to attend it. Accordingly, after breakfast, hired a palanquin, and went to it, six miles. "The occasion of this mela, as the people informed me, is this: About two years ago, a large tamarind tree was uprooted by a storm, and lay in this condition till the people had cut away the top and the smaller roots. They say it was totally dry, though some of the roots were still in the ground. A few months ago, the owner of the tree set some men to cutting it up. They had cut but little, when the tree began to cry out, and the men ran away. A few nights after, at midnight, a woman of the village near by, having occa- sion to be out, saw the tree rise and stand up, crying, All, Ali, Ali! Next day, a Musalman faqir of the same village took possession, and gave out that Hasain the martyr (one of the grandsons of Mohammed) had spoken to him from the tree, and ordered him to make a platform about it, and to invite people to honour it. At the same time, fresh twigs began to shoot out at the top of the dry trunk. The faqir says he asked IN NORTH INDIA. 159 what sign would be given that the martyr was really there, and was told that the blind should receive sight there. He obeyed the command; and as people came along, told them the wonderful story. Several blind have been made to see; people have had the places in which to search for stolen goods pointed out to them ; one poor fellow, who presumed to touch the platform while he had swine's flesh in him, was deprived of his sight at the instant ; and many other marvellous things are related. "I inquired into all the circumstances carefully, and cross-examined all the witnesses I could find. I need not fatigue the readers of the Chronicle with all the facts that appeared: they were sufficient to show that the tree had never been dead; that it might easily have been raised up without a miracle; that no one could name or point out the men who had cut it, and heard the voice; no one could, of his own knowledge, say that any person had received sight there, except those who were interested in keeping up the impos- ture. The faqir family is the most important in the village, which consists of but five families, nearly all of whom are directly interested in the affair, and profit by it ; and the others are very low people, who might be easily hired to aid in this or any other rascality, as they are professed thieves. In short, the tree has evidently been set up by these people, for the sake of the contributions that are now coming in, and a few people have been suborned to give false evidence, and the credulity of others has been wrought upon, till the thing has grown to the present height. A mela is held every Thursday: sweetmeat-makers, grain-sellers, toymen, and some others, make a good thing out of it, and are all interested in the continuance of the fraud. Both Mohammedans and Hindus frequent the place, and equally believe in the power of the saint. "I took up the platform as a preaching place; and though doubtful whether they would permit me to 160 MISSIONARY LIFE remain there, I thought it best to try, as anything I might say against the imposture on its very seat, would be more likely to have effect, than if said at any other place. I talked there as long as I could endure the heat, and then went under the shade of a tree. A great crowd followed me; and those that were behind compelled those who were nearest me to sit down, so that they might hear better. I talked as long as I had strength, on the insufficiency of their religion to satisfy the heart, as illustrated by their readiness to run after every new thing, even to the stock of an old tamarind tree; and then told them how the heart could rest on the perfect atonement of Christ, when once it was re- newed by faith. Afterwards I distributed several tracts, and conversed with three or four small groups, and then left for the tent. " After leaving the ground, I met Hanuk, who, having reached the tent after I went from it, had fol- lowed me. This doubled my talking power, and I turned back with him. We went on the platform of this new idol; and from thence Hanuk denounced, with a great appearance of indignation, the idolatry and rascality of the whole affair. Then he melted with pity for the people, and begged them to come to Christ, who would keep them from all such folly. Then he again turned upon the faqir, and denounced upon him the anger and curse of a jealous God, for his proceed- ings. I joined him in this; and we left the poor people confounded and speechless. Then we asked the people to come into the shade with us; and there again told of the love, power, and glory of Christ. We reached home just as it was growing dark, very much fatigued. "This is the second new idol that I have encoun- tered during this short journey; and they are fre- quented by thousands. There were not less than a thousand people present to-day, and I met a great number going away. Facts of this kind show the spiritual state of the people in a more striking and IN NORTH INDIA. 161 melancholy light than even their observance of the old idolatry. That has at least antiquity in its favour; but here we see people running eagerly after every new lie; straining to believe the most improbable pre- tensions; asking for no proof; freely offering money, grain, and clothes, on the shrine of every new abomi- nation, while our message of truth is heard with indif- ference. We have no lying wonders, with which to captivate their gross senses. And the great body of the Musalmans are as deep in this mire as the Hindus ; saying there is but one God, but running after Hindu idols, on the pretence that God can work by any instru- ment he pleases. They know nothing of the sublime declaration, 4 My glory will I not give to another.' "They showed me a girl, who, they said, had been made to see a little with one eye to-day. A man held up a finger, and asked how many there were. She answered, one. He held up two; and she said two — and so on regularly to five. Then I pushed him away, and held up my doubled fist, and asked her how many fingers were open. She answered, two! Her mother picked up an old flower, and asked her to tell what it was. She said, a flower. Then I made them all hold their tongues, and showed her a piece of white sweetmeat, and asked her what it was. She said it was a floiver! Really I never saw so awkward and transparent a deception in my life; and yet the peo- ple were all agog for swallowing it, and seemed sorry that I had overthrown the credit of the lying blind girl/' " I find to-day that a Hindu servant now with me regards the Sabbath. He cooks his dinner with more than common neatness and care, and uses no salt. On other days he eats with less care, and puts salt in his food. He does not know any reason why he makes this difference, except that it is the custom of his caste." "By this time five or six men were following me 14* 162 MISSIONARY LIFE ■with some appearance of interest. I found a man sit- ting on a small bedstead in front of a room, having "beside him an English fowling-piece, a native match- lock gun, and a blunderbuss — in his belt a pistol, and across his knees a sword. A nice horse was tethered near him. I saw he was a man of some consequence, as I might safely calculate the number of his servants by the arms I saw near him. I addressed him by the title of 'Their Excellency/ as it is the custom to give high-sounding titles, and in the third person plu- ral; and he bestowed upon me the title 'Majesty/ and invited me to take a seat on his bedstead. He told me he was a native lawyer. I commenced tell- ing him about Christ, and he asked me why we eat pork. I told him that was a matter of merely tem- poral concern, but the salvation of the soul related to eternity. But why do you consider wine allowable? I begged him not to introduce a matter of so little consequence; told him that, now there were several Hindus listening, it became a Christian and a Musal- man to converse on such subjects as would tend to show them a better way than idolatry. But why do not your people wear beards? Because, with refer- ence to mere external matters, concerning which God has given us no directions, and about which he does not care, we do just what is most convenient; the soul is of more importance. ■ Pardon me — I must look fur- ther, and find some one to talk with who cares for his soul. I made him an obeisance, and he rose up very politely to return it; but as if the spirit of trifling for- mality had fully possessed him, he asked me, How dare you pray with your body dirty? Your people go and worship before they bathe. By this time all my listeners were gone." " Preached here to eight men, and gave them two tracts. They had never heard a word of the gospel before. I spent a considerable time with them, and they followed me to the bottom of the bank, and IN NORTH INDIA. 163 offered to furnish me with anything they could to eat." "Sabbath. — Moved the boat about a mile this morning in order to reach Musanagar (city of Moses,) which we could not do last evening. After breakfast walked to the city, nearly a mile, through the wildest place I have ever seen in this country. The whole region between the town and the river, as far as the eye can reach up and down the stream, is cut up into the most ugly ravines, the residence, as the people tell me, of tigers and wolves. Near the river the ground is higher than elsewhere, and full of broken bricks- — the tradition concerning which is, that thousands of years ago there was a fort here. Walked into the town with a man, who offered to introduce me to the principal Pandit, which he did. They gave me a seat in a pleasant shade; and we had a long and interest- ing conversation in the presence of a good and atten- tive audience." "We came down into the town and preached to a considerable company of Musalmans. They offered me paun to eat, and a pipe; both of which I declined on the ground that they would hinder my talking. "On the way back, stopped to examine the spot where a new Bhawani (a goddess of that name) has recently made her appearance. The people told us she appeared to a Brahman in a dream, and told him where to dig to find her. I told them that no one could find so readily as he who hides; and that it was very easy to pretend to have a dream. The whole thing is a contemptible little image of an ugly woman, about eight inches high, shrined in a new temple about one-fourth the size of a dog kennel. Doubtless it is a good speculation for the Brahman, as the place seems to have been much frequented. " In returning through the town of Daranagar we discovered an Albino, a man of the Kalwar, or distil- ler caste. He would have been perfectly white had 164 MISSIONARY LIFE not his skin acquired a reddish raw-looking shade — hair white, and eyes red, like those of a white rabbit. He was a very disagreeable object. He told us he was married and had a son of the usual India ink colour. He said his health was usually good, though his eyes could ill bear a strong light. He had once a brother like himself, who is now dead. "Near this same town we stumbled on a marked specimen of the people's taste in modelling and sculp- ture — the colossal figure of a man, or of one of the Deotas. The figure was lying on its stomach, the legs extending out behind, the arms spread out from the sides, but inclining backwards, and the head and breast elevated, as if to peep over a wall before it, for the purpose of stealing a fearful look at an image of Rawan and his children, who were standing in the majesty of painted clay, at the further side of a field. The work was too large to be the mere play of the boys, and too silly to be done by any but the most childish men. In itself the thing was highly ludicrous ; but when we consider that it is gravely connected with the religion of the people, it becomes very painful. "4. — A day of hard work, and of few events. Preached in Kara, in two places, a long time. The people wanted to make a feast for me, and consulted me about what would be' most agreeable; but I told them I was most sensible of their kindness, and would rather accept of their offer than appear ungrateful ; still I did not wish to give them trouble, and would respectfully request they would say no more about it. 5. — Went to Daranagar, and preached in two places. Had the greatest crowd about us that we have yet had. Nothing particular occurred, except a discussion about the Bhawani, which has recently come out of the ground here, mentioned under date of the 3d. It never seems to have occurred to any of the people here, that the Brahman might have hid the image IN NOKTH INDIA. 165 where he afterwards pretended to find it — I trust we have done something to damage his profits. " As we were coming out of the town an old Brah- man hailed me, and asked if he should get his support from us if he should come with us. I asked him why he and the most of the people always had that subject uppermost, and were always thinking of their belly. He answered, that a man could do nothing without eating; and that if he could fill his belly by it, he would worship God, or Bhawani, or Jesus. I added, or Satan. And telling him we had no use for such converts, no object in making them, and no desire to see them, and that such conversion could do men no good, I abruptly turned away from him. Then I told the people that we sought their future happi- ness, and had no desire to detach them from their business or their fields; I invited them to receive Christ for his own sake, and for the life to come; and not for worldly advantage. The scene made an evi- dent impression. M I noticed to-day more of that fatal levity in treat- ing religious subjects, which has often been noticed in the Hindus, than I have seen before in a long time. But it really is not strange that the Hindus should treat the most serious subjects with a degree of light- ness perfectly inconceivable to those who have not witnessed it. Their two greatest amusements are, their religious festivals, and listening to their religious traditions. The chief festivals are the Hull — throw- ing dirt over each other, and singing licentious songs; making a large image of R&wan, and blowing him up; setting up two boys as Ram and Lakshman, and con- necting dancing, juggler's tricks, and masquerading with it; and the like. Their traditions are of the im- pure and ludicrous intrigues and adventures of the gods; and to impious people tales of impurity always seem funny; so that whenever we begin to talk about Christianity they seem to be set all agog with the ex- 166 MISSIONARY LIFE pectation that something is coming which will prove equivalent to a good joke. Poor people! they are never serious themselves about religion, and they can hardly conceive how we can be so. It takes a long acquaintance to overcome this levity; and when it is overcome, it is succeeded, not by interest, but by weariness; because the subject of course is, to such minds, one of the most dull and dreary that could be imagined-— there is no fun in it— and faith has not come in, to give its dread truths any effect on their minds. " After breakfast I took some tracts and went to the encampment of a company of native artillery near by. There were both Musalmans and Hindus. I had a long talk with them, and gave away four tracts. " Nearly all the men w r ere away in the fields, I found only three to speak to. The women all either ran into their houses or peeped at me from the dis- tance. Before some of the doors were little conical heaps of cow-dung with a tuft of grass stuck in the top. A little wall of the same material surrounded the heap ; and both were covered over with little spots of cotton-wool. This they told me was a kind of altar for the worship of the cows and oxen, which is cele- brated once in a year. They gave no reason for this worship, except the usefulness of these animals. For the same reason, a few everiings since, our skipper worshipped the boat, offering a lamp to its figure- head. u 29th. — Preached in the evening at a village. In the moonlight after tea sat on deck listening to the sound of the Musalman drums celebrating the Muhur- ram in one village, and to the drum symphony of a Hindu story-teller in another. Shortly our own boat- men set up a tune with a drum accompaniment. The scene was beautiful; and yet the w T hole air was filled with Satan's music. When shall it be filled IN NORTH INDIA. 167 with the sound of psalms and Christian family •worship! " "Went from this village to a smaller one — had eight men, two women, and some boys to hear us. The people were very stupid and ignorant. We found it difficult to talk small enough to make them understand anything. Did as well as we could; and they were evidently gratified by our attempts, whether any other good were effected or not. They all promised me that they would instantly forsake Hinduism, and seek Christ. This kind of promise is not uncommon; but fulfilment, alas! is very rare." "This morning passed a village, which was burnt about eight days ago. The cattle and people looked desolate enough amongst the fire-marked clay walls without roofs and doors. The roofs in this region, being merely a thin thatch of grass on very slender poles, soon are entirely destroyed by fire; and the houses are always so huddled together, that when one roof flames, the village is gone. But the people will soon cover in their houses again in some way, and sit down content. It is certain that after the fire was once over they troubled themselves very little about it. Truly, there is some consolation in having little to lose, and in an apathy that can submit to anything. But what can be done for a people so quiet?''' "Went to a village called Brahmanpur, about two miles off, and preached a good while to about a dozen Hindus, who heard well. Most of the people were out in the fields at their work, and we at first thought we should find none to talk to; but we walked all through the town, inviting one after another to follow us, and at last stopped on the border of the tank or reservoir, under the shade of a tree. The news that a sahib, or foreign gentleman, was there, soon spread, and all that were at home came running to hear what we had to say. We found an old native sergeant here, who had retired on his pension, and who was very 168 MISSIONARY LIFE kind and civil to us, forcing on us a present of milk, which was most acceptable to my assistant Hanuk." Beside the above extracts, accounts might have been given of some scenes of a more marked charac- ter. Sometimes it has happened that the people seem to be in a perfect furor for books, and press upon the missionary greatly. Occasionally scenes of comparative danger are encountered. In what I have chosen to relate I have aimed to present our ordinary work amongst the rural population. To this, I will only add some notes of a journey in the Himmalaya mountains, to convey, so far as they may do so, some notion of the kind of work to be done there. "April 28th. — Rose early, and climbed the first hill on the road by moonlight. Went to a village a little way from the road, and preached to all the men and boys who were in it, for about half an hour. For- ward, and did the same in another village, where we bought some wheat-meal for the people and ourselves. Went on to a third village, and got permission to sit in the shade outside a house. Here we had our breakfast prepared. While waiting for it, the whole village crowded around us, and we talked to them about the gospel a good while. " The people of these villages seemed very ignor- ant. They appeared to be afraid of us in some res- pects. At first they stoutly maintained that they had nothing to sell ; but when they saw us begin to pay money for meal, they began to bring it freely from all their houses for sale, and we heard several hand-mills commence operations. We found a man who said that a neighbour, who was absent, could read Hindi, but he would not take a book, which w^e wished to leave for him. Another man said that his son, who was also absent, could read well; and after some persuasion, he allowed us to leave some tracts for him. But just before night he came to our tent, a distance of at least three and a half IN NORTH INDIA. 169 miles, and over a most tiresome road, to return the books. He said that Mr. Woodside had told him that he would make inquiry., on his return, whether they had read and understood them, and that the whole village were frightened at the idea of such an inquiry, and were persuaded that if their knowledge did not give satisfaction, they would be punished in some way. We could not persuade him to keep the books. He then made a demand for a few coppers, which he said one of our hill-men had run off without paying. But it happened that both of us saw the money fully and honestly paid. We set out with a rule that everything should be paid in our presence, to avoid disputes of this kind. After he found that the case was going against him, he said that his honesty in bringing back the books, when he found that they could not be used satisfactorily, ought to cause his story to be believed. The fact is, he thought in this way to make us believe his falsehood about the money, and it was this that caused him to take all that trouble, and give up the tracts. "About noon we left this third village, and went down into the valley of the Jumna. We thought we should have a good deal of shade on the road, but were disappointed; the sun beat upon us with con- stantly increasing fury, as we left the elevation of the hills. The road was the sharpest descent which I had ever attempted ; it turned sharply to the right and left, forming a zig-zag ; it was fully three miles down, and sc steep that we had to go on foot; the horses slid frequently; I had to plant my foot care- fully, in order to prevent a disastrous slide. I reached the river at last, feeling that I had never before exerted myself physically to the same degree. The tent was set up on the bank of the Jumna, and we spent the night there. " The Jumna, at this place, was a stream about forty feet wide, running very rapidly over a stony 15 170 MISSIONARY LIFE bed, probably falling four feet in every hundred. It presented every appearance of being a raging torrent thirty feet deep in the rains. There is an iron sus- pension bridge over it,' built by the government. The hills on both sides are precipitous, leaving only a narrow patch of bottom land here and there. "We found a solitary hill-man living here, who looks after the bridge. We talked to him about Christ. "April 29th. — A severe morning march up from the Jumna. In many places the road was too steep to ride. When our breath was much expended, we took hold of the horses' tails, and made them assist us. After ascending, we stopped at a pretty large village, the name of which I forgot to record. There was a large two storied temple here, and close to it a three-storied public building, the lower story of which was a kind of storehouse for the temple, and the upper stories empty, and used as sleeping places for strangers. The temple is one of Siva, containing only the usual lingam. This god, called in the plains Mahadeo, (the great god,) is here, and wherever we went in the hills, called Mahasu — the last syllable being, doubtless, a corruption of Shiva, or Siva. The temple stood in the middle of an oblong court, with houses on two sides belonging to the temple establishment, which seemed to be numerous. In the shade of the temple we had our breakfast cooked, and our little table set out. There we talked a long time to the assembled villagers about Christ. After- ward we spent part of the day in the strangers' apart- ments, talked again to the people, and dined. "By the side of the large temple was a very small one, with an image of Kali, all smeared with the blood of kids that had been offered to her. " In the course of this day, an old woman, belong- ing to the temple, dressed herself up in all her absurd finery, and offered to dance before us. We IIMPLES IX INDIA. IN NORTH INDIA. 171 gave the people to understand that we did not like to encourage bad women. They told us that in this part of the hills there were no such women; and that though none but bad women dance in the plains, here respectable women do so, before idols and at wed- dings. However, we still declined to encourage the thing, because they intended the dance to be in hon- our of the idol ; otherwise we would have witnessed it, in order to see as much as possible of their man- ners and customs. "A singular exhibition of spiritual vanity and desire of applause to-day. Our coolies made an offering to Mahasu, and boasted to us that they had given twelve and a half cents each — a large sum for such a purpose. When we mentioned this to the people of the temple, they replied, with indignation, that all our people together had given three cents, and wished for the credit of a large donation. Poor human nature is the same everywhere. After dinner inarched again, and talked at another village. " We had milk and other provisions from the peo- ple of this town, and the headman has impressed him- self on my memory as the most avaricious man I have ever encountered. After we had paid the full usual price for all that we had obtained through him, and given him a small present for his attentions to us, he began to question us as to how much more money we would have given him had we not given the people books ; and offered to gather up and return the books, if we would give him the very smallest sum of money. He complained because we had paid for one article to the man who brought it, saying that it ought to have gone through his hands, in order that he might have secured a part of it. When we expressed some con- tempt of such extreme cupidity, he said he saw no reason for it; money was the highest good — and 'Oh, how I do love money !' came out with an emphasis and 172 MISSIONARY LIFE unction that would have been the best of all possible reproofs to some close-fisted Ghristians. " Spoke to the few people whom we could find. We happened to touch a small conical stone, which was lying on a large rock near the border of a field, and one of the villagers immediately cried out against us, that we had desecrated his god, and that it would cost him a goat to atone for our transgression. We de- clined to pay for the goat, and advised him to seek a different object of worship. " The village near us is named Kachanu. We here found the first apricot and walnut trees. " May 3d. — On the march Mr. Woodside preached in the village called Bandrauli. I was too hoarse to assist him much. In the evening reached a place called Shilaura, where the same thing occurred. " During this afternoon's march, we came in sight of the Tauns river. This is one of the tributaries of the Jumna, and quite as large as that river where we crossed it. Our first view of it was gained on round- ing the shoulder of a high mountain, when the valley, with a large nice village and a great amount of culti- . vation, opened upon us through a shower of rain, on which the sun was shining. Our elevation was such that not the faintest murmur of the vexed stream below reached our ears — while we could trace the white foaming torrent for a long distance. Here, as in many places, our road was a narrow cut, from two and a half to five feet in width, in the side of the hill, while there was a clear slope below us, apparently quite down to the river, appearing as if a person once started would roll without remedy a mile and a half to its rocky bed. " May 5th.— Marched in the morning from Man- dhaur to Tikri. Here we found a village on the top IN NORTH INDIA. 173 of a ridge, with a temple and very small lodging-house with open sides. Rested part of the day and preached a good deal. " The architecture of this region is peculiar. The roofs are like the top of a tent: flattish towards the eaves, becoming more steep as they ascend, and end- ing in sharp points at the top. Around the eaves hangs a fringe of turned wooden pins, fastened loosely on nails, so that they swing in the wind, and rattle against each other. The architecture is decidedly Tatar, or Chinese, rather than Hindu. " Forward to Pientra, crossing two small streams, and consequently having a great deal of down and up. Reached the tent late, and dined at near 10, P. M. " May 6th. — Could not leave this beautiful valley without proclaiming the good tidings to the people, and therefore did not march. Mr. Woodside preached, and I was obliged to be nearly silent on account of my throat. " About 11 o'clock we left this place, and marched to a brook, where we spent a part of the day, and afterward went on to a place called Ohhipal. A large temple, a police station, a shop of sundries, a government dispensary with native doctor, and several ordinary houses, made up the village. The elevation must have been considerable, as the cold was a serious annoyance. We talked to all the people whom we could get together, and left some books. The greater part of the people showed the greatest degree of indif- ference to our message. " The road here is much wider than on the other side of the Tauns; but the severity of the ascents and descents is not much less. We had hard work this afternoon. The people have evidently had more inter- course with Europeans, in some respects to their great advantage, and in others not. 15* 174 MISSIONARY LIFE " May 7th. — Our first halting place was called Pat- thar Nala — a very pleasant place, but near no village, nor did we pass any on the road. This place is reck- oned one of the usual stages ; but as the day was Sa- turday, and we did not wish the Sabbath to be a day of idleness as well as of rest, we marched in the even- ing to the next village that was near the road, the name of which was Udai. We found our tent pitched near the village. A beautiful water-course brought down a stream for the irrigation of the fields, and a fine orchard of apple and apricot trees was on one of the slopes of the hill. On making inquiry, we learned that the place belonged to the estate of the Rana of Balsan. Rana is a title given to small chieftains, though they sometimes have sovereign authority in their territories. The headman of the village sent off information of our arrival to the Rana, whose resi- dence was at a distance of about a mile and a half. We could not but admire the scenery here. We had passed over a fine wide hill road, latterly along the side of a finely wooded mountain ; and our encamp- ment was on one of five ridges, which descended and converged towards a point in a large valley that lay below us. Numerous villages were in sight, and the lower parts of the hills were prettily terraced and cul- tivated. Here would be a very fine place for a hill mission. "May 8th- — Sabbath.— This morning about ten o'clock the Rana and suite came to see us. We had offered to go and see him first, as a compliment to his rank ; but his people would not hear a word of it, say- ing that the Rana would think himself disgraced if he failed to pay clergymen the compliment of visiting them first, because he felt that ecclesiastical office placed a man above all worldly rank. The people of the village gathered around us, and I preached about an hour to them, addressing what I said to the Rana, IN NORTH INDIA. 175 who assented to it all as good. He then told us something of his history— pointed out, on the top of a neighbouring hill, the ruins of a fort, which had once belonged to the Gurkhas, who had driven him from his territories, and kept possession of them four years. When the Gurkha power was broken by the English, he gathered his people, took and demolished the fort, and handed over his prisoners, three hundred and eighteen in number, to General Ochterlony. The people here have a curious corruption of this general's name — they uniformly call him Luniakhtar, placing the two first syllables after the two last. The Raiia had evidently been a man of action and energy. His grandson, the heir-apparent, gives small promise of being a worthy successor to him ; he is about the dirt- iest and most ignorant fellow that we have met in the hills. The old gentleman has a great-grandson, about sixteen years old, a fine boy, whom I wish we could educate. We pleaded with his dirty father to send him to the plains to school, but I fear in vain. "In the evening we returned the Rana's visit. Mr. Woodside talked a little while to the people at his house. The house was four stories in height, built on three sides of a court-yard. The lower story seemed to be mostly occupied by the cattle, and the court-yard was full of manure. We returned, on the whole a good deal disgusted at the palace. But though we could not fancy the peculiar kind of civili- zation seen here, yet justice requires me to say that the Rand and his people are far in advance of the great body of the hill people. I have no doubt but that he would receive, and treat well, a mission that would include a medical man, a school, &c." No effort has been made, in selecting matter to re- present our experience, to put matters in an encour- aging light. The cause of Christ can never be really promoted by deception, by highly colouring facts, nor 176 MISSIONARY LIFE by concealing what may tend to discourage some per- sons. For those who support foreign missions on right principles, it is sufficient to know that people are destitute of the gospel and accessible. This, with their knowledge of the promises of Grod, is enough to cause them to work on with zeal, faith, and patience. There ought to be much more done in the way of itinerating than is done at present. There is no other way in which the greater part of the people can ever hear the gospel. But the missionaries at pres- ent in the field cannot do enough of this work. One man, or perhaps two, at each station, are confined by schools, so that they can only go out during their va- cation of one month. Others are bound to their sta- tions by presses and other things, to leave which for any time requires a great deal of management. More than once I have been obliged to have a man con- stantly going between my tent and the press, when I was out preaching in the country, to carry proofs, business letters, and the like; and had to spend half of the day in work to keep the presses in motion. And it often happens that when we go out, it is to attend a meeting of Synod, or a mela, which it is a shame to neglect; and there is not time on the road to do anything better than to get forward as fast as possible, and preach as much as one can during halts. These things show that there ought to be more mis- sionaries at each station. Superintendents of schools and presses, and others having fixed employments, could then be relieved for a part of each cold season, and all could remain out for about three months, each party at different times, so as to cover the whole season. If we could have as many men as would be desirable at such a place as Allahabad, a plan might be carried out for thoroughly preaching through that district, which has not yet been done; and it is not wonderful IN NORTH INDIA, 177 that it has not been done. There are about ten large towns, and five thousand villages and hamlets in it ; and at the rate of three a day, which is as great an average of visits as a missionary can pay, it would require over forty years of one man's life — Sundays and holidays included — without one day's rest, or one day's sickness, or one day's attendance at church, or one day's visiting, to preach only once in each of these places. And along with this view of that dis- trict, the sad fact ought to be remembered, that it is flanked on both sides by unoccupied districts of greater extent. Almost all the places that we occupy are sur- rounded by an equally dense population. Large tracts of country lie open on all sides of us; people ready to listen are everywhere ; roads to facilitate travel exist in abundance, at least through all the territories of the English, and in some instances, in those of the native princes; and the protection afforded to life and property, and to one peaceably preaching the gospel, is sufficient. This is a simple, unexaggerated view of the work to be done, and of the facilities for doing it, if only the men were there. I have a hundred times been asked, since I came to America, if we have yet produced any very sensible effect on the country by our labours. In the ninth chapter of this work will be found the an- swer to this question. But if the Church will look at the field, and our means, she will be surprised to learn that we can give an answer in any respect encouraging. Let the facts stated in this paragraph be pondered. They are highly suggestive. 178 MISSIONARY LIFE CHAPTER VII. THE PREPARATION OF BOOKS FOR THE PRESS. Every missionary who has any leisure for it, and who acquires sufficient skill in the languages used in his field of labour, will desire to do something to bring the power of the press to bear upon the mass of evil around him. And all have this leisure, who are not particu- larly engaged in schools, or something as engrossing. If a man's chief work be oral preaching to the heathen, he will generally have all the middle of the day to employ in study of some kind, or in writing and trans- lating, for seven months of the year. During the other five months, he ought to be in the district, away from the city, and busy in such operations as are de- scribed in the last chapter. But during the seven hot months, he can only go out to preach in the morning and the evening. A part of the day ought to be used in preparing for such preaching, in thinking how to answer objections, and in talking with the catechist on such matters ; but this will still leave him some time. This time he ought to employ in doing such literary work as may most directly aid the object of the preaching. All missionaries cannot, indeed, be ex- pected to produce anything in this way. Delicacy of health may prevent. In many cases, the style formed in learning the language is not sufficiently good for this purpose, though a man may use it effectively in preaching. The mid-day leisure of many is filled up with the care of schools and presses, and with business connected with the mission. We are also to remember, that a man will ordinarily be preaching a year or two at least, before he will feel that he has sufficient expe- rience of the ideas and language of the country to write books for the people of it. IN NORTH INDIA. 179 All these things make it most necessary that they •who have language, leisure, and ability, should use them. A great deal has been done towards secur- ing good translations of the Scriptures; and this object is now so far accomplished, that probably only occasional revisions, for future editions, will be neces- sary, until the native Hindustani church shall pro- duce scholars of her own, with such learning that they can reproduce the ideas of the Bible correctly, and in an idiom more acceptable to their countrymen than that of foreigners can ever be. Tracts and elementary treatises on religious subjects have been prepared to some extent, the greater part of them having a connection with the controversies between us and the Mohammedans and Hindus. But a great deal more remains to be done : the reading of native Christians is still confined to very few books. Com- parative destitution, then, is the first reason why we should all labour in this department if we can. And it must be stated that this destitution is not merely of religious books; we have scarcely any history, phi- losophy, science or literature, in either dialect of the Hindustani; and what little there is in any of these departments is either Mohammedan or Hindu in its tendency, or mere crude and elementary attempts. Most of it is, therefore, evil in its tendency in various ways; and this is a second reason why we should write for the press. The want of a good literature, using the word in its broadest sense, is one of the greatest hinderances to the work of conversion. And yet if there were nothing extant, which took the place of a literature, it would, in some respects, be better for us ; for that which exists misleads the peo- ple, and is so thoroughly trusted in, that we can scarcely find any place for the truth. The people have histories, geographies, and various other works ; but they are as erroneous as they can be, and the people are as bigoted about them as about their reli- 180 MISSIONARY LIFE gions. Every one has heard of Hindu astronomy, and how it is connected with mythological and theo- logical fables, till it has become a part of their reli- gion; and the fact that they can calculate eclipses gives the Pandits such credit with the people that it certainly would be better, not merely for the cause of Christianity, but ultimately for science itself, if they knew nothing, and were dependent upon mis- sionaries for the very elements of all knowledge. All have heard of the seven concentric oceans of the Hindus; and it is harder to remove this false idea from the mind, and afterwards implant the truth, than it would be to make a good geographer of a savage. In the matter of history, the Hindus have not a page that is reliable ; and yet they have a history, so full of a marvellous antiquity and aston- ishing deeds and occurrences, that we appear in comparison to be pigmies in exploits and knowledge. The notions of the Mohammedans are just as far from the truth. For instance, if we wish to appeal to history in any way for evidence of the truth of Christianity, they suppose themselves to be in posses- sion of all history already, and will not admit a jot that we can bring forward. They are as completely unbelievers as to Herodotus, Xenophon, Josephus, and all other early historians, as they are of the New Testament. They have received a distorted and fabulous account of the Greeks, and of Alexander, from the Persians ; and this they insist on believing, and will have nothing else. All the ecclesiastical history and other writings of the first six centuries after Christ, are to them a perfect nullity; but they suppose that they know all about it. And when we adduce anything of the sort, they say that if there had been any such thing they should have heard of it, and that is the end. And the Hindus have not even so much knowledge of the ancient West — they can scarcely believe that it ever existed. Therefore IN NORTH INDIA. 181 we have to teach the people not only religion, but also history and science; and we must go back to the very beginnings of knowledge, and clear away the jungle, and plant anew through the whole course. Doubtless we shall secure some native assistance in this; native Christians will help us; but everyone will see that for another whole generation foreign assistance will be a necessity. To enliven this dry chapter, a few amusing instan- ces of the conceit of knowledge will be related. A Pandit once soberly gave me an account of the origin of winds and storms. I do not think that all Pandits are as ignorant as he was ; and yet his extravaganza may be taken as a specimen of a thousand prevailing ideas. He said — There is a great monster, that lives near the outer verge of the first circle of ocean, that is, the salt water ocean. He is several thousand miles long. He was one of the gods, but for some offence has been confined in that lonely situation. He lies near the surface of the water, with his face above it, and turns about continually. His motions cause the continual heaving of the ocean ; his respirations cause the tides; his breath, discharged in various directions, cause the ordinary winds; and when the water occasionally dashes in his face, and incommodes his nostrils, he blows the water out of his nose with an impatient snort, which causes a storm, that pro- ceeds to the utmost bound of the earth in the direc- tion in which he may happen to be lying. Storms in other directions are the reflections of such storms as strike against Mount Sumeru. In a discussion with a Musalman I brought forward the idea that in Christian countries art, learning and morals are in a better condition than in any other. He denied our superiority in general terms ; and said that, as to art, it was essentially idolatrous, and Mus- almans could not practise it; but if they would, it was well known that their fancy, imagination and taste 182 MISSIONARY LIFE ■were much greater than those of Europeans; as to learning, we were no match for them : rhetoric we evidently could make very little of, while they had it in perfection ; and so they had logic, of which Euro- peans had not the first rudimental idea — had not even a name for it; and their philosophy accounted for everything in heaven and in earth, and for much that was in other places, while it was perfectly certain that Europeans had no notion of spiritual and abstract ideas. He would, indeed, acknowledge that we had a greater acquaintance with steam, and with the science of mechanics generally, than they had; but this was a low kind of knowledge, to possess which showed no grandeur of ideas, no cultivation of intel- lect, no taste, nor anything but a qualification for being what we are, the mechanics of the world ! He said that this knowledge was only a refinement of brute force, by which we held in subjection a great part of the world, not to our honour, but to the ex- posure of our grossness. Morals he gave up to us, saying with a wicked wink, that rustics and low per- sons were usually found to be more correct in some respects than gentlemen. Two standing objections, which Musalmans make to any proof drawn from the New Testament are, that Christians have corrupted it, cutting out and inserting what they pleased ; and that when the Mohammedan army took Alexandria and burned the library, every copy of the New Testament was lost. Now a correct knowledge of geography and history proves that neither of these things could have hap- pened. I have often had occasion to show this to visitors and others in discussion; but those that are educated in the native fashion, deny every fact and statement which we can bring forward bearing on these points; and, before we can prove anything re- lating to them, we must go back and prove a thousand subsidiary matters, historical and geographical. In IN NORTH INDIA. 183 short, the whole foundation of reasoning with them on such matters must be laid ah initio. Once a native friend of mine, who had been pretty well educated in English in a government school, made these objec- tions ; and I appealed to him whether he did not know that they could not stand. He answered that he knew it very well; but, said he, "what will you, or what can I do with learned Musalmans, who have only been taught on the native system? I have stated the matter to them; and they answer me that I am de- ceived by a systematic manufacture of geography and history to answer Christian purposes ; and that the government, professing to be neutral as to religion, is really in secret helping the missionaries, by using books of falsehood in its schools.'' Ignorance of this kind is. more invincible than mere absence of know- ledge ; and to deal with people so stuffed with false notions, and so confident in them, requires the exer- cise of the greatest talent and industry. An account of a Mohammedan map of the world, lately published at Lucknow, which claims to be the Athens, as it certainly is the Paris of the Musalmans of India, will illustrate the matter here spoken of. The author has partly got up to the European idea that the earth is round; but he takes it to be a circu- lar plane. His map of the whole world is therefore shaped like one hemisphere of our maps. Instead of dividing it into zones equally each side of the equator, he has adopted their old idea of seven clim- ates all north of the equator, which he has put far south of its true place. As to the countries of Asia, their relative positions are not ludicrously wrong ; but most of the countries of Europe are small islands northwest of Asia. One of these islands is gravely called Europe, another England, another London ; another, a very small one, Spain; and another, three times as large as that called Spain, is named Andalu- 184 MISSIONARY LIFE sia! America is nowhere; but one of its towns is on the western coast of Africa. These things are enough to show that missionaries and other Europeans have a science and literature to create for India; except so far as Bast Indians and native Christians may be enlisted in this great work. I might show this further if I would go into an exam- ination of their poetry and works of fiction, and dis- play their corrupt character; but that can easily be imagined, and it would not be decent to write about it. Government school teachers will aid in this work materially; but as they have very little to do with teaching Christianity, their efforts will tend to pull down the edifice of falsehood, more than to build up religious truth. Our missions have not been backward in helping in this branch of the work. The reader will remember the statement that the Rev. James Wilson furnished several of our first tracts at Allahabad. He also did the greater part of the work of preparing notes on the Koran, which we published in the Roman character. The translation in Urdu is by a Mohammedan, made for their own purposes. The notes are intended to furnish missionaries and catechists with arguments in controversy. Our friend E. G. Fraser, Esq. fur- nished Mr. Wilson with. the materials for a great part of the notes; and he wrought them into form, and added to them. My part of the work was an occa- sional suggestion and clipping of redundancies, and making the indices. Mr. Wilson also assisted in get- ting out the first complete edition of the Urdu Old Testament, called that of Messrs. Shurman and Haw- kins. A volume of sermons in Urdu, for the native Christians, was projected, collected and published by our mission. Its authors were numerous, including most of our missionaries, who were then in the country. IN NORTH INDIA. 185 The first Bible in Hindi was a translation from the English. When the work began to be out of print, the North India Bible Society took measures to have it thoroughly revised. Mr. Owen of our mis- sion was appointed editor of the work. There were others on the translation committee, of whom I was one; but the business was almost all done by Mr. Owen. My share of it was a few suggestions as to certain passages, and the commencement of the print- ing of it. In this book, ornamental and large letters are used in the beginning of the chapters, the first work in the Nagari letter that has been printed in this manner. The Urdu Bible was soon expended, and a new edition needed. It was generally agreed that it re- quired some revision. The late Rev. J. A. Shurman, of Benares, was requested to revise it, assisted by me. His viable life was cut short when the Old Testa- ment was about half done ; and I finished it, with such assistance as I could get— not attempting so close a revision, however, as the first part had received. It is not probable that the translation is yet quite as good as it ought to be, and we may look for further improve- ments. The New Testament revision was in the hands of a separate committee. The Lodiana Mission, assisted by the late Rev. W. Bowley, of the English Church Missionary Society, published a book of Psalms and Hymns at our press at Allahabad. That edition has been used up, and several of our missionaries were lately engaged in revising and greatly improving the work for repub- lication. The same mission has produced a large number of tracts and books. Their most considerable works are, the greater part of the New Testament, and the Psalms, in the Panjabi language, and a large dic- tionary and a grammar of that language. I cannot fully detail the work done by our missions, 16* 186 MISSIONARY LIFE through the presses. My own part of it, beside that mentioned above, has been as follows: 1. Eight ori- ginal lectures on the eighth chapter of Proverbs. 2. A translation (with additions) of the American Tract Society's tract on the New Birth. 3. A translation of Gallaudet's Ruth. 4. A translation of Watts and Henry on Prayer, as prepared by Dr. Bouton, of Concord, N. EL, with an original introductory lecture. 5. A translation of the Dairyman's Daughter; and, 6, of the Young Cottager. 7. A translation of Flavel's Fountain of Life. 8. A translation of Dr. Hodge's Way of Life. My connection with the press also caused me a great deal of labour in looking over other people's books, and preparing their copy for the press. This, and the part that I took in the translation of our Confession of Faith and Catechisms, probably amounted to half as much labour as the translation of the work& above named. The subject of job-work, and of work and assistance rendered to me by my catechist, has been mentioned in the third and fourth chapters. A peculiar kind of perplexity is felt by all who at- tempt translation into an oriental language, more than by those who are rendering one European language into another. I have no other reason for mentioning this here, than that it illustrates the state of mind and opinion on 'certain subjects, amongst both Mohamme- dans and Hindus. This perplexity arises from the fact that words meaning, or rather appearing to mean, the same as some English word, do not convey the same idea to a native mind that they do to ours. We need to go back of the dictionary, and find out of what the idea in question is composed, in a native's mind. For example, the word gundh in Urdu, and pap in Hindi, mean sin. But if we were to ask either Musalm&n or Hindu, What is sin? he would define it very differently from what we should do. The Musal- man would consider touching a dog as real, though IN NORTH INDIA. 187 perhaps not so great, a sin as killing a man. He would think it as offensive to God, if not so mis- chievous otherwise. His conscience would condemn him as readily for mistake in the forms of prayer, as for not praying at all; and for breaking a fast, as for picking a pocket, especially if it were the pocket of an unbeliever. A Hindu would consider his spittle falling on his person to be sin, and probably would not in the least be troubled by lying and cheating; because an outward defilement interdicts religious services and eating with his caste, while acts that we call sinful do no such thing. Nayd janam, or nai paiddish, means the new birth; but a Hindu left to himself would sup- pose these terms to mean the transmigration of the soul into another body, in which to be born the second time. A Musalman would certainly ask Nicodemus's question about it. Pdkizagi and pabitrtd mean purity or holiness. But a Musalman thinks holiness is being washed with water; and a Hindu thinks it to be the same, or to be marked with ashes, mud from the Ganges, or cowdung, or to possess a certain kind of stone, or to live at Benares, or to see the Ganges, or any one of a thousand more things. Pdki is only another form of pdkizagi, and ought also to mean holi- ness; but colloquially it is applied to shaving off all the hairs of the body, save those on the head. These statements have been suggested to me by the recol- lection that our mission once published a list of theo- logical terms in English and Hindustani, in the hope of aiding to settle some vexed questions amongst mis- sionaries. No more appropriate close of this chapter can be found than the questions — Ought the Church to grudge her best men to such a work as the formation of the literature of the thirty millions of Upper India? And it is not for this thirty millions only: their lan- guage is more or less known all over India, and their literature always has influenced, and always will in- 188 MISSIONARY LIFE fluenee, that of various other dialects and languages of Central and Southern India. North India is the home of all the great races of the country, and the source of all the great influences that have spread over the whole land. Ought her very best men, who have taste and talent for teaching by the college or the press, to wish for a better field than one where so much is to be done? Can her finest linguists find a better field than the one here described ? I take it for granted that these questions address men who do not ask, Where can we live easiest and gain most honour — where can we get most worldly good? But, "Where can we do most for Christ, and for the advance- ment of the highest human interests? Certain it is, we do not want in the mission field men of any other spirit. But ought a dull scholar to be sent to combat with the subtleties of an elaborate and skilful false philosophy? Ought one without fluency or address to be considered "good enough for a missionary" to a people polished, accomplished, quick, subtle, fluent and conceited? Ought the Church to keep a man at home because he is a man of talent — or the man him- self to object to "bury himself in the obscurity of a mission field?" My sober conviction, after seventeen years' experience and observation, is, that until the Church is more ready to send out her first-rate men, and more of such men are willing to go, to the foreign missions, she will not have done her duty, nor will her missions prosper as she expects, nor will she at home avoid the evils attendant upon " withholding more than is meet." IN NORTH INDIA. 189 CHAPTER VIII. EELATIONS WITH EUROPEANS AND EAST INDIANS, AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON OUR WORK. The subject of this chapter is not very directly con- nected with my own doings as a missionary; but it is intimately so with my experience; — and a full view of what a missionary has to do in India, and of his com- forts, his aids, and his discouragements — in a word, of his life — cannot be given without an account of his connections with society. In America, every man of good education, tolera- ble manners, and decent dress, is considered a gentle- man. It is not so in English society. Amongst the English in India, connection and profession are the paramount distinctions. A commissioned officer is a gentleman; so is a covenanted civilian; so are their sons, though they may not succeed in getting into either of these professions, and have to put up with some subordinate appointment; so are any persons who may be known to be connected with the upper, or upper-middle classes of England, though in subor- dinate places; so are medical men and chaplains. Missionaries, on account of their education, but mainly because of their ordination, are admitted to this so- ciety. If there is ever any reserve in admitting them, the reason of it is to be found in the fact that many early English missionaries were men of small education ; and it has happened that some persons of very low origin and education have been admitted to the office in India, and some societies and individuals have sent out as missionaries persons who were not qualified to mix in society; and thus the social position of a missionary has been rendered somewhat doubtful, at least to some people, who are fastidious. Some few East Indians, connected with society by a mixed but 190 MISSIONARY LIFE legitimate parentage, and some illegitimate offspring of very great men, are admitted ; but the great body of that people are considered to be out of it. A mer- chant, who buys articles for exportation, is a gentle- man; but if the same man keep a shop for selling anything by retail, he is not a gentleman. There is no great fault to be found with these distinctions, except that they are a little too unbending: some persons retain their places in society by their connec- tions, who are unfit for it; and some, from want of connections, are excluded when qualified to do honour to it. Natives of rank are sometimes found in public parties, but rarely have much to do with European society. It is the custom in India for the new comer to a station to call on the residents with whom he would like to be acquainted. Unless it be ascertained that the person so calling has no claim to the society which he thus seeks to be admitted to, the residents return his call; and if he be a married man, the ladies go to see his wife. If they are persons of sufficient standing, invitations to dinner are given by those who return the call ; but this is not obligatory. A mis- sionary may thus call on whom he pleases, and very few will be rude enough to neglect to return the civil- ity. After this, people, of a quiet turn, and the de- cidedly religious, invite them to their houses occa- sionally; but the more gay and worldly treat them with only civility. But when the missionary family is settled in a place for a considerable time, and the English residents are changed, the circle of their ac- quaintance may become much more restricted; for the new comers may not be devout enough to wish for the acquaintance of religious people, and therefore will not call on them, while the missionary is thus given to understand that he may keep his distance. Casu- ally he may become known to them, but generally a large part of the residents of the same station will IN NORTH INDIA. 191 remain strangers to him. At a small station this will not be the case so much as at a larger one: the minor stations contain so few people, that there is both more need of the mission family in society, and more time to attend to them ; while at the larger places they are of less consequence to other people, and various pub- lic amusements and parties take up people's time suffi- ciently to combat a faint wish to cultivate the mission- ary's acquaintance, if it were in existence. The high officers of government acknowledge our standing by occasionally inviting us to dinner. The Governor General, the Commander-in-chief of the army, and the Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwest Provinces, have done this repeatedly. At the same time that we have, in this way, a standing with the highest, we are not excluded from the acquaintance of those who are "not in society. " Most missionaries freely visit respectable persons who are not recognized as having any rank, and some of our most valued friends are amongst them. In associating with them we very probably sometimes incur the scorn, or pity, or contempt of some who are "in society," and may forfeit some civilities from them. I have experienced something of this; but never had any doubt about which class I could most influence for good, and therefore never hesitated to do what some people would call descending. How- ever, it is generally practically acknowledged, that we may go where we please without losing caste. At the larger stations it is sometimes quite a task to call on all the older residents. I never attempted it. And this operates to hinder some persons from making the acquaintance of missionaries. And some new comers at a station probably find out who are the covenanted civil officers, and the officers of the mili- tary force, and call on them without thinking to in- quire whether there are others who may be entitled to such a civility. I have known some persons, who 192 MISSIONARY LIFE had lived six months at a station before they found out that that there were any missionaries there; and then felt delicate about calling at so late a day. Others stayed away altogether, from want of interest in missions; and when asked, at other stations, if they had known the missionaries, and anything about their work, answered, in substance, u No; I hardly ever heard of them, and saw nothing of their work. I suppose they do very little beside living well and taking it easy." No doubt these people are often quite honest in saying such things, except so far as they are culpable for not taking pains to see w 7 hat was being done. There certainly were many persons at Allahabad and Agra, during my residence at those places, who could not have known what the mission was doing; for they never visited the press or the schools, and probably never asked anybody whether there were such things. They never encountered any native Christians; for none of them were engaged in busi- ness that brought them into contact with Europeans outside of the mission. They never, or rarely, could see us at our preaching places, because they rode on the high roads outside of the city, and avoided the places where the natives mostly congregate, on ac- count of the various unpleasant things that assail the senses there — and these were the very places where some of us could have been seen frequently. A gen- tleman residing in a country house outside of New York, never going to church when he can avoid it, never seeing a religious periodical, avoiding all reli- gious society, and never making any inquiries what- ever as to religious people or movements, and, more- over, being much predisposed to look on all such with dislike, may easily come to believe and say, (and such people do say,) that the American Bible Society does no real work, and uses its funds corruptly. Such a gentleman would be a fair parallel to many who have IN NORTH INDIA. 193 lived in India, and have done missions a mischief, be- cause it was supposed that they must know all about them from having been on the spot. I have known two American travellers to move together through the pro- vinces we occupy, and never come near one of our places, though at the same stations; and at the same time that they were making themselves ridiculous there by reporting the Unitarian to be the largest and leading denomination in America, they were, as many Ameri- cans will naturally believe, qualifying themselves to report on our missions. Another, and much more distinguished traveller, being a man of a gentlemanly mind as well as station, though not agreeing with us in religious opinion, came to us as a fellow-country- man ought to do, looked at our work and made himself able to report it fairly, so far as his own theological system allowed him to see it in the right light, gave us a great pleasure by making use of us, and got some of his best information for his letters from us. But there are few like him. A hundred intelligent young men may easily be found, who have each spent five years in India, whose combined knowledge of it is not equal to that gathered by him in a few weeks. Many pay no attention to anything but their regiments and their amusements. But there are almost always a few truly devout and religious persons at every station, who kindly take notice of the missionaries, and encourage them in their work. His heart must be insensible indeed, who fails to feel great gratitude for the comfort derived from such society and such help, and the most sincere friendship to such persons. It would, of course, be invidious to name such friends, and they would not desire it ; but it is necessary to acknowledge their kindness at least in general terms. And the English community in India, considered as a whole, is an ex- ceedingly liberal one, both in feeling, and in pecuniary aid to missionary efforts. Their liberality as to money 17 194 MISSIONARY LIFE will appear from what will be stated hereafter. Their kind feeling and true charity towards those who are of different denominations, deserves special notice here. There are very few indeed who look superciliously upon dissenters ; and no regular missionary is without help in supporting his schools, building his chapels, and carrying on any of his operations that may re- quire extra outlay. Presbyterian missions sometimes meet with a degree of special favour, as not being English dissenters; but the difference made is not great, nor often perceived. As a matter of course the missions of the English Church are better supported than any others ; and they ought to be so by their own people. Their missionaries are more noticed in society, as is but natural too ; but other missionaries cannot complain of any want of kindness, or of any tendency to hand them over to "uncovenanted mer- cies." Where there are many men, there will be some weak and bigoted men; and we have now and then encountered one who evidently thought us an evil- — -perhaps a chaplain, who spoke of us contemptu- ously, or tried to keep his people from aiding us ; but such men have had bad success, and always injured themselves by anything like active hostility. Epis- copal missionaries journey and preach with us to the heathen, notwithstanding the silly law, by which the English Church has excommunicated herself from all the rest of Christendom, by denying ministerial com- munion to all out of her own pale. Some of my oldest and dearest frierds are of their number. The benefit of the association of missionaries with English society is not confined to the missionaries. There have been many cases of conversion, resulting from their labours, both amongst Englishmen of all grades, and the East Indians. Many anecdotes might be told to show that the benefits of missions are not confined to the natives. The Presbyterian Church at Agra, and four large European and East Indian con- IN NORTH INDIA. 195 gregations at Calcutta, are the fruit of missionary labour. Numerous individuals have been brought to the knowledge of the truth, who have afterward been very useful to the various missions in the country. Our own missions have been useful in this respect; and it would give me a great deal of pleasure to record instances of this kind, did not delicacy forbid. Formerly the chaplains on the East India Compa- ny's establishment were generally worldly men ; too often a discredit to Christianity, and a snare to their people. They are appointed by the Court of Directors in such a way that the appointments are virtually made by single individuals ; and if a director has a nephew or friend in orders, whose circumstances make such an appointment desirable, he puts him on the Company's establishment, sometimes without any regard to his character or habits; and thus it happens that some of the chaplains still are, and almost all of them used to be, as utterly without religion as any person in decent society can be. And it is easier to convict a man of felony in a criminal court, than to get rid of a clergy- man who is a disgrace to his profession. When, after the revival of religion commenced in England, and, through the exertions of Dr. Buchanan and one or two pious directors, a few pious chaplains were sent out, the great change commenced. The Baptist Mission at Serampore was flourishing at that time, and there began to be some Englishmen in India, who had not, as the proverbial expression went, thrown their bap- tism overboard when passing the Cape of Good Hope. Then missionaries were sent into various parts of the country; and their devout and correct deportment made it no longer possible for a drunken or wicked chaplain to hold up his head in society, unless he were a man of extraordinary effrontery. Pious gentlemen and ladies, whose piety was often the fruit of mission- ary labour, also influenced the chaplains favourably. As soon as religion began to take the place of impiety 196 MISSIONARY LIFE in this way, the effect of it extended in some measure to the Court of Directors; and many gentlemen amongst them have conscientiously used their power of nomi- nating chaplains, so that now many of them are truly worthy men, in many cases aiding missions as much as they can, and some performing in a manner the work of missionaries themselves. The great majority of the chaplains, indeed, do credit to the religion they profess ; though, a large number of the most exem- plary being Tractarians, there are comparatively few willing to be seen countenancing the missions of any other Church than their own. The present venerable Bishop of Calcutta, and his Archdeacon, are men of the right sort. They have not hesitated to visit our schools, to encourage us, to recommend our operations to the notice and help of their people, and to take our part in conversations with their own Tractarian clergymen. But though they do all this in passing through the country, as did also the present Bishop of Madras, Dr. Dealtry, when Archdeacon of Calcutta, yet when they come to pub- lish the account of their tours, they are obliged to follow the policy of a State Church, and see nobody in the field but themselves. From their accounts, one would never dream that they had kindly visited our schools, or even heard of them. But if the exigencies of their official position prevent them from telling that they did so truly a Christian thing as to encourage and treat kindly Presbyterians, my position, happily, allows me to acknowledge their kindness with gratitude and thanks. Bishop Wilson has always treated us personally with great kindness. He caused all our mission to be in- vited to meet him at a large dinner party at Allahabad. My wife cherishes a volume of his sermons, which he gave her, with his autograph on the title-page; and he prayed publicly for our mission by name at this party, and named it in a sermon in the church. The Bishop IN NORTH INDIA. 197 is most affable. At a breakfast, where I met him, I blundered into a discussion with him concerning the proper interpretation of a verse in the New Testament. When he found that his own clergymen, who were present, agreed with me, and that the commentaries gave him no support, he gave up with perfect good nature, showing no disposition to resent, or to stand upon his official dignity. He is accustomed to pray for guests, and any friends in special danger or affliction, by name. When I was last m Calcutta, he invited me to one of his public breakfasts, and at morning worship named me, prayed for our church, " for all the churches in that great country from which he comes, and finally for all the family of Protestant churches throughout the world." A great many anecdotes of his eccentric manners are afloat in India ; but I will not repeat them. These are sufficient to illustrate, so far, our position and relations to the Episcopal Church in India. From what has been said it will easily be gathered, that the state of religion is better now than formerly in the nominally Christian community in India; and this is true. I do not know that there has been much change for the better amongst the purely European part of the population in the last fifteen years, nor has there been any deterioration; but there has been a great improvement in the East Indian class: there are a great many more of them now than then, who take a part in religious movements. For further in- formation as to this class of persons, I must refer the reader to the article especially relating to them in in this volume. Various intimations of having received pecuniary aid in India, for several of our schemes, have been given. It will be gratifying to the friends of mis- sions in America to hear to what extent, and how op- portunely, the help of the English community has been given to us; and therefore I will mention, some- what in detail, the matters in which they have aided 17* 198 MISSIONARY LIFE us within my experience. All our missions have had similar experience. In speaking, in the fifth chapter, of the way in which the mission church and one of the chapels at Allahabad were built, I have already acknowledged important assistance. In addition to the account already given of the Presbyterian church at Agra, the following statement is made to exhibit the influence of Europeans and East Indians on our work. The members of this church, after arriving at Agra, and finding themselves without a minister or place of meeting, formed an alliance with an open communion Baptist church. They attended the services there, and assisted in pay- ing the pastor. Not long after this arrangement was entered upon, Mr. Wilson from Allahabad and Mr. Rankin from Futtehgurh, were sent to Agra to form a new station of our missions there. They had every thing to begin anew. For this reason they were in- duced to join the alliance with the Baptists; at first it was certainly understood that the Presbyterians were to enjoy equal privileges with the original congrega- tion; at least, the Presbyterians thought it was so understood. But soon our people learned that they were not to be allowed to baptize a child in the cha- pel, though it was ostentatiously called "The Union Chapel," and the immersionists had a cistern in it, and administered baptism in their own way there. The Presbyterians did not complain of this, for they were willing to accord some kind of precedence to those who had first occupied the place. The other party, however, seemed to be hurt by our friends' baptizing the child at all while in connection with them, though it was done in a private house; and they seemed determined, therefore, to crush out the last appearances of Presbyterianism at once. Accord- ingly when the Presbyterian part of this curiously constructed church had received a new member, and IN NORTH INDIA, 199 wished to ordain him as a Ruling Elder, and one of the original Allahabad members had consented to be ordained as Deacon, they refused to allow a special service to be held in the chapel for this purpose. They could have had no other good reason for refusing than that which is here supposed. It was manifestly to their injury to do so. They probably thought they could prevent our further organization ; and they were permitted by Providence to try to do it, in order that it might lead the Presbyterians to separate from them, and exert themselves to build up a church ac- cording to their own consciences, without any undue compliances; at any rate this was the result. Messrs. Wilson and Rankin commenced services in a private room ; and when the new 7 mission-house was finished, the service was held in that until the end of Novem- ber, 1851. Mr. Rankin was soon obliged to leave the station, and finally the country, by ill-health, after which Mr. Wilson continued to be pastor till he also left Agra for America in the latter part of 1850. I was at Agra on a visit, which was connected with a preaching tour, a little while before Mr. Wilson left, and he and I pressed the wants of the place so upon the notice of the Rev. Mr. Scott, who went out to India with me, and was then at Futtehgurh, that he consented to occupy it for a year, if I would then re- lieve him, if possible. There was another special reason for our keeping some one at Agra, besides considerations connected with this congregation, which will appear in a future paragraph. Mr. Scott re- mained a year, and preached to this people amongst other engagements; when I succeeded him in the same for a year and a half. I was followed in the pastoral charge by a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, the Rev. Thomas Grieve Clark. Mr. Clark did not remain long. He accepted a call to a Free church in Bombay. It was a disagreeable thing to be obliged to transfer this church to other hands ; but as it did 200 MISSIONARY LIFE not result in any rupture of most friendly relations, and as the church has amicably come back to us, the subject need only to be thus referred to, amongst the things that have a bearing on our relations in India. This church has built for itself a very pretty, though very singular edifice, at a cost of about six thousand dollars. It is well placed for the civil sta- tion, but fully three miles from the military. The members of this church, when they began to build, gave each a month's income, except in the case of ladies whose husbands did not belong to our body. One such lady, however, paid for the steeple and pul- pit, as special donations. The remainder of the money was chiefly raised by a subscription amongst the English community at that and other stations ; but there were various little matters, in the finishing and fitting up of, the place, that caused several supplemen- tary subscriptions, which bore heavily on the mem- bers, and were met with a very good spirit. This was a great undertaking for so small a church, and the aid they received from the public was very libe- ral. The property vests in the church, not in the mission. The new building was dedicated on the first Sabbath of December, 1851, after my arrival at the place, and just before Mr. Scott's departure. Seve- ral new members w T ere admitted on this occasion. Several gentlemen not connected with any mis- sion have contributed handsomely to the printing of works in behalf of Christianity. I have not space to attempt an enumeration of these w T orks, though I notice the subject as a most interesting one. Some have written tracts, and procured their publication. The desire to use the press is sure to grow up in a cultivated community; and therefore the connection between missions and the Europeans and East Indians is likely, in this respect, to be of still more impor- tance in future. IN NORTH INDIA. 201 A Tract and Book Society existed for some time at Benares, and received a considerable amount in con- tributions from Europeans ; but, its support after a time falling off, its action has ceased for some years past. Our press once had an alliance with this Society, so that its publications were put on the American Tract Society's list, and the number that one society alone could have printed was thus doubled. A Tract Society has for some time been pretty well supported by the English community at Agra, and is publishing a valuable series of tracts for the natives. It also keeps a depot of English religious books, for the supply of residents in North India, which is a very useful part of its operations. A Bible Society was formed at Agra when Mr. Wilson first went tf ere, and he was chosen its Secretary; and those of us, who have filled his place in the mission, have been its Secretaries ever since. The connection, which it was desirable that we should maintain with these Socie- ties, has at all times been one of our reasons for retaining Agra as a station. In addition to these great societies, which are intended for the whole North-west Provinces, there is a Protestant Associa- tion at Agra, intended to meet the efforts of the Papists, who have made that place the seat of a Bishopric. This association has published some lectures which I delivered at Agra, called out by the aggressive movements of the Papists; and will fur- ther exert itself to supply the community with such books and tracts as may be an antidote to the poison sowed by them. A female day-school at Allahabad is a very good example of many similar operations, which are sup- ported by the European community. It was estab- lished, superintended, and supported by subscriptions gathered, by several ladies in succession, till at last its superintendence was handed over to our mission. It is still doing its part towards introducing female 202 MISSIONARY LIFE education into India. This school was got tip and maintained by ladies of the first rank in society ; and a yery similar one is taught, and mostly supported, at Agra, by one of the most humble of East Indian women. We thus see how the cause of truth is aided equally by persons at either end of the social scale. At all our stations we receive valuable aid from the English to support our high and vernacular schools. Some schools at out stations are entirely sustained by them. There is no doubt but that several more able and trustworthy native Christian teachers than we have at our disposal would be cheerfully supported in various places by the friends residing there. I have had a great deal to do in collecting these subscrip- tions, and know that their amount could at any time have been increased, had circumstances demanded it. Our schools at Agra are in a special manner con- nected with the European and East Indian community, both by their origin and their object. As it is desir- able that our plans as to these schools should be well known, I shall not hesitate to give a rather full account of them ; and to do so it will be necessary to go back and give some intimations of what preceded them. When all the government offices had been concen- trated at Agra, the European and East Indian popu- lation became very large. Amongst Protestants there was only one school of even respectable charac- ter for the poorer English and East Indians ; and the terms of that were so high, that comparatively few could avail themselves of it. It was kept by an East Indian Baptist minister, who had formerly been a missionary in connection with the Serampore mission. He was a very good man, and not a poor scholar ; but still he and his wife were no match for the Popish priests and nuns, who had set up boys' and girls' schools there, and were likely to do Protestantism no small harm. This gentleman being a Baptist, and his IN NORTH INDIA. 203 school private property, having no public body to guaranty either its efficiency or its permanence, pre- vented the Christian public from aiding it, so as to cheapen it and render it more efficient. Though the community would fully allow that Baptists are true Christians, they very naturally objected to their chil- dren being educated where they would be very likely to contract a prejudice against the views of their parents, on so important a matter as baptism. But this consideration had less weight there than the necessity of some cheaper and more efficient school, to educate Protestant youth, and to counteract the manifest schemes of the Papists. Therefore several leading gentlemen in the government service took up the matter, contributed a large sum of money, ap- pointed a committee of management, bought one house and hired another, engaged an Episcopal clergyman and his wife as principals, and established The Pro- testant Academy in male and female departments. Our Mr. Wilson was one of the committee, and one of our ruling elders was the committee's secretary. The Baptist minister, whose school was injured by the new one, was appointed one of its teachers. Thus a strong effort was made to unite all kinds of Protestants in its support. By great exertions a large number of pupils were collected, and all went on well at first. But there were two fatal defects in the plan : — it was not possible to make the tuition fees low enough to secure the original design; and its prosperity depended on a single life, or the health of a single man. The prin- cipal belonged to no body of men who could always supply his place when needful. After a short time the principal became ill, and w T as obliged to resign his appointment. His place was supplied, on the recom- mendation of some good people in Calcutta, by a man whom the bishop ordained for the purpose — supposed to be a very good man, and therefore thought, by those who recommended him, to be fit for anything 204 MISSIONARY LIFE up the country. But he proved to be without talent, skill or learning. Under him the institution died a death so sudden, that it was clearly proved to have had no stamina before. The Baptist minister, even while the servant of the institution, issued private cir- culars giving notice to parents that he would re-estab- lish his school, seceded with a number of the pupils, and contributed to the ruin of the academy. The committee were soon left without teachers or scholars, and with a debt amounting to considerably more than the property in hand. Soon after the failure of this institution its friends, especially the late Mr. Thomason, Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, began to wish that our mission would under- take its revival. They represented to Mr. Wilson, that it could succeed only as a mission-school; and that there was no other mission but ours able to undertake it. Mr. Wilson had had such thoughts before, and now began to lay plans for the undertak- ing. He advocated the renewal, in some shape, of the Protestant Academy, and spoke of his hopes of a Theological Seminary, to grow out of it eventually. The want of men, and the want of a precedent for precisely such a mission-school, led to postponement, and Mr. Wilson was obliged to return home before anything was done; but he left the scheme as a kind of legacy to his successors. After Mr. Scott took his place, he too began to advocate the plan. With the help of the Secretary to the late academy he wrote and printed a pamphlet on the subject, which was circulated amongst all our missionaries in India, and secured their almost unanimous approval of the scheme. He was thus encouraged to send the plan to our Executive Committee. When the matter was thus laid before the Exe- cutive Committee, they approved the scheme, and requested Mr. Fullerton to leave Mynporie and com- mence the boys' school. They also expressed an IN NORTH INDIA. 205 intention to send out another man to aid him. This order reached us at the close of 1851, shortly after my arrival at Agra. As the Committee intimated a desire that a commencement should be made during that cold season, Mr. Fullerton removed his family in February, and the school was opened on the 2d of March, 1852. We began it in a small hired bun- galow, near the Presbyterian church, with six scho- lars. Although I was not expected to take any part in the instruction of the school, yet Mr. Fullerton insisted that I should take upon myself the greater part of the arrangements to be made for it. With his help, therefore, and with the advice of several friends, I published a small pamphlet as an advertise- ment. In this we announced the principles, plan, and arrangements for the school, and made an appeal to the public. According to this plan the tuition fees were made about half the amount that had been usually paid in private schools. This at once brought the school within reach of a great number of people, who could not previously pay for schooling; and it encouraged benevolent persons to pay the fees for occasional very poor children. This was the opera- tion of our plan that we had anticipated; and it makes our school in a measure a great public charity. When I was leaving India the matter of rendering aid to poor scholars, both in the boys' and girls' schools, was being systematized, and placed in charge of a committee of persons desirous of doing good. The number of children of both sexes already receiv- ing assistance was considerable. We found ourselves peculiarly situated as to a place in which to keep this school. We had been author- ized to hire a house for Mr. Fullerton's family, and must, of course, have some place for the school; but whether we should hire one house large enough for both purposes, or a small one for each, the expense 18 206 MISSIONARY LIFE would be considerable. We had no resources for buy- ing a place save the sum appropriated for the rent of a dwelling-house a year, and the contribution that the Presbyterian church gave for my services. This we could appropriate to any local object without refer- ence to the Executive Committee in New York, under their own rule about local contributions. The sum was not then definitely settled, but the church pro- posed to give me one thousand rupees at once, to en- able me to buy a place. As the sum that would be saved by having no rent to pay, and this one thousand rupees, would be a considerable part of the sum neces- sary for purchasing a house, we were greatly inclined to make further efforts. Mr. Fullerton had not yet arrived, and left all the matter to my decision. I was afraid to undertake to raise so large a sum as would be necessary to complete the undertaking; but Mrs. Warren urged and encouraged a series of efforts, that resulted in the most complete success. This was neither the first nor the last time when my wife was the suggester, encourager and promoter of my most successful efforts. Other friends also, in this case, ad- vised me to go forward. I called on Mr. Thomason, the Lieutenant-Governor, and asked his advice about the advertising pamphlet, and his aid to our scheme. He gave several suggestions, and a thousand rupees. After this I secured the assistance of the leading civilians at Agra, several of whom gave me two hun- dred rupees each. Several kind friends gave me their names as sureties at a bank, so that I might at once have command of the necessary funds until the sub- scribers should find it convenient to pay. As soon as this was arranged we completed the purchase of a large house, out of repair, but in a very good situa- tion. It was built for a lyceum, ball-room, and Ma- sonic hall; and therefore had large rooms, and was quite the kind of place required for the school. We put it into a thorough state of repair, and so divided IN NORTH INDIA. 207 it that Mr. Fullerton's family and the school had in it quite sufficient apartments. We did not then ex- pect the school to increase to such an extent as to make the house too small for the family, under two or three years at least ; and we saw that when it should do so, it would still leave two good rooms for an as- sistant, or that could be applied to any other useful purpose. When the school had been kept for two months in the small hired bungalow, it was removed to the new place; and in one month more Mr. and Mrs. Fullerton were settled in it. The account at the bank was settled and closed up by the end of that year, and the house was paid for without any appro- priation having been made for it by the Executive Committee, except the amount that would have been paid by that time for the rent of Mr. Fullerton's house. The school increased so much beyond our ex- pectations, by the beginning of 1853, that the house became too small for a family; yet it afforded suffi- cient rooms for Mr. Williams, who joined our mission from America about that time, and was unmarried. This building cost about five thousand and five hun- dred rupees. The Rev. R. E. Williams was an old friend of Mr. Fullerton. He went with the view of aiding us in our special work at Agra. In the same year he was made Principal of the school, Mr. Fullerton not wish- ing to retain the office, but continuing ready to re- lieve and assist him in any emergency. We had secured the services of an East Indian young gentle- man, well qualified for the office of head master, and of other assistants; so that, though Mr. Williams' work must be onerous for a time, it is to be hoped that he may finally arrange to have but little of the actual teaching to do, and may be able to give his time to the Hindu controversy, for which his great learning and talents abundantly qualify him. The school has grown till it has nearly one hundred 208 MISSIONARY LIFE pupils; some of them from the Pan] 4b, on the one side, and some from Benares, on the other — a fact that shows the importance of the school to the country. It pays all its current expenses. Amongst the pupils are some native boys of good family, whose parents, though not Christians, wish their boys to be brought up with those who speak English, and have English manners and morals. For this purpose they pay more than the rates of the Government College, and take the risk of their sons being converted. Were it not that English and East Indian parents would object to a very great intermixture of heathen boys with theirs, we might, no doubt, have many more native boys. They learn the Catechism, read the Bible, stand at prayers, and receive the same religious instruction as the Christian boys. It may be asked by our friends, as it was by the immersionists at Agra, why we should set up a Pro- testant school there, when there was already one belonging to the Baptist minister. The reasons — its comparative inefficiency, its expensiveness, and the w T ant of security for its permanence — have already been mentioned. In regard to the latter, it ought to be added, that any place like the principalship of such a school cannot be so easily filled in India as in America, on the occurrence of a vacancy. Outside of the missions, proper men can rarely be found. This will not always be so: our school, and similar ones in Calcutta, will raise up a class of men and women fit for instructing their fellow-countrymen; but until this w T ork be accomplished, help must be given to them by the missions. These views, however, were not accept- able to parties, whose private and sectarian interests were injured by our action. I was loudly accused of setting up the school out of mere sectarian spite. It was in vain for me to plead, that neither the scheme, nor the order for its execution, was evoked by me. The most absurd and uncharitable motives were ascribed to IN NORTH INDIA. 209 me; and I was treated as the enemy of a party, and the sole cause of all the injury they feared. They could not see the least force in the public grounds assigned for our action. But in the midst of their opposition to our scheme, its policy was sadly vindi- cated by the sudden death of the owner of their school. Various strenuous efforts were made to keep up his school, after his death ; but they all failed, and in the course of a few months it was totally abolished. We of course regretted the death of the Baptist minister. He had been a useful and good man, with whom it was painful to come into collision; although we did not think him and his friends right in the opposition they offered. A female school was considered scarcely less neces- sary than that for boys. Mr. Scott's scheme contem- plated both ; but our instructions from home were only as to one. But Divine Providence immediately began to press us onward in further measures for the educa- tion of that class of people. Two intelligent European girls were taken in hand by Mrs. Fullerton, and partly supported by some good ladies, in order to save them from being sent to the Nunnery school. A poor East Indian widow begged of Mrs. Fullerton to allow her two daughters to attend also. Then some neighbours, who could pay for the privilege, begged to be allowed to send in their children. This Mrs. Fullerton was induced to concede, so that she might hire some assist- ant. She procured the attendance of a young woman, and began a private school, not promising to continue it longer than it should suit her own convenience. She soon had fifteen pupils. This little beginning excited attention. There was a good lady at Agra, the wife of a civilian, whose name I would insert here did I not believe my doing so would be disagreeable to her, who looked about to see what other girls there might be who were unable to pay for an education. She soon found several. 18* 210 MISSIONARY LIFE Moved by what she had discovered, she begged dona- tions and monthly subscriptions, got two other ladies to join her to form a committee for the working of her scheme, and took all the poor girls upon her fund, including those whom Mrs. Fullerton had already ad- mitted, in order to leave her more means for procuring efficient assistance. This lady was so successful that in a short time she had a fund of about twelve hundred rupees, and monthly subscriptions nearly enough to cover the monthly outlay. This fund, and similar efforts in favour of poor boys, have since been amal- gamated, as already intimated. During the summer in which this informal school grew up, two things occurred that bore upon our schemes. The appointment of Mr. Williams was an- nounced, accompanied with the intimation that he would occupy the apartments in the boys' school- house ; and money was sent from New York for the purchase of a house for Mr. Fullerton's family. At the same time the prospect was held out to us of hav- ing more force attached to our station ; and a direction was indicated, in which it was hoped that the mission might extend the sphere of its operations. This movement seemed to promise that our forces would be so kept up, that the addition of a girls' school to our engagements would not embarrass us. But at the same time the Executive Committee had informed us that they could not sanction the establishment of this school. And yet, since this seemed to be said rather with a view to any expense that might be entailed upon the committee by such an undertaking, we did not consider it to be quite prohibited, if it could be supported without incurring additional expenditure. At the same time the prosperity of the school, the predictions of friends, and the urgency of all concur- ring circumstances, were such that we felt a good degree of assurance that the Executive Committee would soon be induced to order the full establishment IN NORTH INDIA. 211 of the school. And if this should be done, and we, in the mean time, were to invest the money sent for an additional mission-house in a building only large enough for a family, we should at once be embarrassed by the want of a place in which to keep the school. The circumstances again made us feel that it was proper to proceed without instructions. I was again reluctant to assume such responsibility as was involved in setting on foot a permanent school without author- ity from home; but again my wife formed a scheme, and prepared to exert herself for my aid, and pressed me forward in what seemed to be the path of duty. We learned that a house, situated on the opposite side of the road from the boys' school, and well suited to our purpose, was for sale. We ascertained the lowest terms, and the latest day of payment. Then we de- termined to ask the advice and assistance of English friends, and to be guided by the developments of Providence. I went again to see Mr. Thomason, and stated all the circumstances to him. He said that he thought we ought to go on; — that I was, indeed, a servant of the Executive Committee, and bound to obey orders; but that I was also an agent, and could, in this case, do them better service by acting without orders; — and that our scheme had his most decided approval, and he would give us five hundred rupees towards buying the house. We then secured larger donations than before from the English residents at that and some other stations; and a particular effort amongst the class of people, for whose daughters the school was mainly intended, was quite successful. The Presbyterian church at Agra also gave me five hundred rupees towards this scheme, as a further ac- knowledgment of my services for the first year. For a time we were quite anxious as to the result; but I was led to persevere. The scheme, involving the ex- penditure of more than twice the money furnished from home for the house, was completed. I acquired 212 MISSIONARY LIFE the name of the biggest beggar in North India,; but was sure that it was not applied to me in contempt, but rather indicated an increased degree of confidence and affection. This scheme afterward received the countenance of our Executive Committee; and the school flourishes so as to give good hope of its con- tinuance. The premises of the two schools are sufficiently near together to make them quite convenient for the mission, and yet so separated that the boys are quite separate from the girls. Together they present an imposing appearance. The cost of them was a con- siderable sum; but the community that aided us to buy them, and gave us about two-thirds of their cost, knew what we were doing, and would hardly have ad- vised and assisted us to do it, unless they had thought the outlay a judicious one. The girls' school is partly for day scholars, but boarders are kept in it. At first we did not in- tend that the boys' school should be so ; but it was soon found that it would be desirable to have the head master keep a boarding-house. Accordingly we en- couraged him to buy a house, the yard of which joined that of the boys' school. This will make his situation somewhat better than the salary which we could give him ; and it secures a place for boys from a distance under our own control," while we escape the main trouble and anxiety attending it. It is but right to mention the zeal and devotedness of Mrs. Fullerton in connection with the girls' school. The labour involved in the care and instruction of the school is very great, and the responsibility of the care of female boarders would not be easily borne, without any pecuniary recompense, by any one less heartily engaged in the Master's service. She has displayed the greatest patience under misconstructions and evil reports, even bearing to be asked if she considered her work to be missionary work. But she has already IN NORTH INDIA. 213 an instalment of her reward: spiritual fruit has been produced; and the marvellous transformation of char- acter which results from her influence over the girls must be highly gratifying. Our operations at Agra have produced some inci- dental effects. A number of gentlemen joined us, during the cold season of 1853-4, in giving a miscel- laneous course of lectures to the English-speaking community. This effort was suggested by our mission, but it was taken up with so much spirit by all classes that the credit of it may fairly be considered public property. The gentlemen concerned did me the honour to invite me to give the opening lecture. The lectures were delivered in our boys' schoolhouse. Our good friend, the Hon. J. Thomason, Esq., Lieu- tenant-Governor of the Northwest Provinces, having died a very short time before, I took this occasion, with the consent of the mission, to introduce a short eulogium of him, mentioning him in connection with our schools, and dedicating the house, in which we were assembled, to his memory, by naming it " Thoma- son Hall" Almost immediately after this, my con- nection with Agra was closed by my departure to visit America. This account of the Agra schools has been given to show the liberality of the Indian Christian commun- ity, our relations with that community, and the nature of a part of our work at that particular station. The effect of labours, which we may expect to see, if they are followed up with perseverance, may be estimated by the account of the East Indians and the uncoven- anted service, which is contained in this work. The influence of the strictly European portion of the com- munity will always be very fluctuating; a station may at one time have three or four good men, or some ex- cellent ladies, who will form society on their own model to a great extent; and in a short time they may all be gone to other stations, and persons of a 214 MISSIONARY LIFE quite different character may fill their places. The East Indian people are not strangers, serving a cer- tain number of years in the country, but are settled in it; and therefore a given amount of help and influ- ence derived from them annually is worth more to us than the same from those who are much higher in the scale of society, because it is more permanent. It is this fact that makes the thorough evangelization of this class of people so important. Those who have had patience to follow me to this point, will thank God for the good that accrues to our missions from the English and other Christians in India ; and they who know how sure all good is to be accompanied by evil in this world, will not be surprised to hear that some hinderances to our work arise from the same sources. According to my design, fully to display our circumstances in India, I will briefly men- tion the chief hinderances that are caused by those who are known to the heathen as Christians. There are usually within the field of our missions about six thousand European troops, besides the regi- ments of natives officered by Europeans. There are a few of these soldiers who are good men; but the immeifse majority of the privates are ignorant and depraved, perhaps to a greater extent than any other class of Englishmen in the world. They are recruited from the worst classes, and in India they are almost entirely freed from the moral restraints that surround them, and must influence them more or less, at home. Drunkenness and licentiousness strongly mark their conduct, whenever they can escape from the immediate restraints of military discipline. It is impossible to keep the natives from knowing their characteristics. Again and again are their character and conduct flung at the missionary; and we are advised to go to them, and not have the impertinence to recommend our reli- gion to others, until it has reformed our own people. We are obliged, in this and some similar cases, to IN NORTH INDIA. 215 explain that there are two kinds of Christians — those who are simply called so from the nation or tribe they were born in, and those who are so by real faith. The only effectual way that I could ever find to answer the objection, was to say that our religion makes those who are under its power really better men; while the Mohammedan and Hindu faiths only make men self- righteous, and conceitedly devout, and malignantly bigoted. We can appeal to so many examples of all kinds, that our answer is not without its power, though it certainly does not fully neutralize the influence of wicked Europeans. Though there are a few good men in almost every regiment, and they are known to the officers, yet they are scarcely known to the natives, and have no influence on them. They hardly ever learn the language of the country, and their example is quite unknown and unnoticed. A large proportion of the East Indians formerly had the vices of both their parent races, and the vir- tues of neither. The drunkenness of the European, the duplicity of the Hindustani, and the weakness of a newly mixed race, formed a very undesirable cha- racter. Professing Christianity, and practising many native customs, they did the native religions no harm, while they compromised ours before the native com- munity. These people are now greatly improved, and there are most estimable persons amongst them. They marry mostly amongst themselves, and concubinage with native women is almost at an end. Their ranks have recently also been recruited from a better stock than formerly. But many representatives of their former character are still found. Many of the musi- cians of native infantry regiments, and some of the lowest of the copyists about the public offices, are still specimens of the class referred to; and here and there, scattered through the country, some are to be found sharking for a living. Their reputation is not favour- able to Christianity. They are often referred to by 216 MISSIONARY LIFE our opponents ; but we are able to refer to many who are an honour to our religion. This class is increasing, and further labour on their behalf will still more in- crease their good influence. Too many military officers do us harm by their ex- ample. It is true, that the officers are generally a most respectable body of men; but there are excep- tions, and all exceptions are keenly noted by the natives. The notorious licentiousness of some, and the unscrupulous indebtedness of others, are unfa- vourable to our labours, for the same reason that the vices of European soldiers are so; and some of them actively oppose us. I have known the case of an officer, detached for civil employment, who had an intelligent Musalman in his office, on whom a strong impression had been made by our labours at Allaha- bad. This man asked the officer's advice about making a profession of Christianity, expecting encouragement to do so. He judged that a Christian would naturally like to see one converted to his religion ; but he was surprised to meet with abuse. The officer called him a fool ; asked him why he should change his religion, when one was as good as another; and told him that he had no right to do it, because he was born a Mohammedan, which was, therefore, what God had intended him to be. When the man argued that but one of the two faiths could be true, the officer called him a hog, and told him to mind his work. But such gross examples as this are rare. More harm is done by the prevailing levity and wildness of young officers, and by the general negative example of irreligion set by the great body of the army. But here we most thankfully note exceptions: there are those who honour Christianity, and labour for its advancement. And the domestic relations of officers are now much more creditable to Christianity than they formerly were. Though it is perfectly a digression, I will not scruple to say something more of the Mohammedan IN NORTH INDIA. 217 mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The close of his history is covered with impenetrable obscurity. He was near being baptized by us, when he took a temporary leave of absence from the office in which he served, and went to see his family; and he never returned. He could not have stayed away to escape baptism; for he was not so committed to us that he could not have drawn back if he pleased. He would not run away from his service, for he could get nothing equal to it in worldly advantage anywhere else. We heard a report from the neigh- bourhood of his family, that after he had been with his friends a few days, his brothers gathered his cousins together, and two or three more staunch Mohammedans, and disputed with him till late at night. When the discussion had heated their temper, his elder brother solemnly called on him to abjure Christ, and promise not to be baptized. He answered, " I will die first." " Die, then !" shouted his furious brother, and cut him down with a sword. This story could not be authenticated; but his disappearance is otherwise unaccounted for. When the present dis- pensation is closed up, perhaps we shall see him and many more such martyrs amongst "the host of God's elect." And we shall be rewarded for our labour if our mission shall be the means of sending but one such there. Merchants, speculators, and travellers in India have exerted an evil influence. Planters also are often a stumbling-block. There have been examples of knavery, oppression, and vice, rivalling the utmost depths of native depravity. Native bankers cannot pretend to equal some of the transactions of English banks in that country. But here, again, there are redeeming points; there are men of these classes who have been an honour and a blessing to the country. Civilians have generally set a better example than other classes of the European community. More of 19 218 MISSIONARY LIFE them are married men, and live regularly and virtu- ously. They are not all such as they ought to be ; and occasionally one of them does more harm to Christianity than several good men can repair. Members of all classes of the nominally Christian community, do us a mischief by compliances with the native religions. On one occasion an officer of high rank visited a Hindu shrine near us, and when solicited by the priests, gave them sixteen rupees. He probably only desired a reputation for liberality ; but, instead of that, he got the reputation amongst the natives of having a sneaking regard for, and some fear of, the idol worshipped there. He knew that his donation would be considered an offering to the idol ; but he laughed at objections, saying, " Let the poor devils think what they will." Sometimes we have trials that arise from good men. Difficulties with assistants have been increased by their injudicious interference. A wicked (or crazy) apostate baptized Brahman has been paid for preaching for years, by a good old General, who would not believe that his protege preached against Christianity. There have been cases of interference in mission affairs by friends, which produced difficulty and embarrassment. I have known good men, who evidently expected us to consider their immense salaries and high official positions to be good argu- ments in any discussion. But it would be ungracious to dwell on the faults of the friends of our cause, even if we do suffer from them sometimes. The writing of this chapter has given me pleasure. There are sad things in it, as there are in all parts of this world's history. But in this case the good predominates. The influence of the English in India is in favour of, rather than against Christianity. And amongst the East Indians, and others who will make India their home, there will arise labourers to convert the natives, and supporters and comforters of IN NORTH INDIA. 219 those labourers, concerning whom it shall be clearly written, u the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them." CHAPTER IX. SUCCESS. It is but natural that all, who care anything about missions, should ask, What is the effect of all these operations, that are detailed and alluded to in this volume ? — and it is but reasonable that I should give them as clear an idea of it as I have tried to give of our situation and labours. Something will already have been gathered from the preceding chapters; for the personal anecdotes that I have related, contain accounts of some of our converts, and allude to more. I most heartily wish that I could tell a more stirring story of our successes than the truth will allow me to do. It would gladden the hearts of the missionaries to be able to report crowds of inquirers coming, and great numbers baptized ; it would save them from many an hour of heaviness, if they could see more souls given to them for their hire ; and it would doubtless stir up the activity of the Church at home to hear such accounts. But though we cannot tell of many having " believed our report," yet there is no reason for discouragement. There are two con- siderations that ought to have great weight in estimat- ing the value of our success. There has not yet elapsed sufficient time to secure any great amount of success. Every one, who has read accounts of missions, knows that from fifteen to twenty-five years pass in preliminary labour before 220 MISSIONARY LIFE there is much fruit gathered. Those places that have been most distinguished by the blessings poured out upon them, have been cultivated with this amount of assiduous patience. If any one studies the mis- sions in Southern India, from the time of Schwartz onward, he will find that at first the amount of suc- cess was only sufficient to keep the labourers in heart and hope: and the field, where now the Episcopal and the Independent English, and the American Board missionaries are receiving village after village under their care for instruction in Christianity, for- merly supplied only families and individuals singly, with crosses, difficulties, and frequent defections. The history of the missions in the Sandwich and Society Islands is so well known, that they only need to be alluded to as cases in point. The missions in the Turkish Empire, though now their successes are sufficient to be thought one cause of the Russian movement in that direction, went through a long night of faith before they were favoured with such results. The Church missions in Bengal had been longer planted than any of ours, before the Krishna- gar movement gave indications of approaching day; and then they received, as we may say, at once, four thousand converts. And beside the actual converts, the influence of the truth has produced a sect amongst the natives, called Karta-Bhojds, (worshippers of the Creator,) said to number one hundred thousand souls. These men have cast off idolatry, and are much more accessible than others. They, in fact, occupy the position of a compromise between the truth and idolatry, to which they are brought by the combined action of the truth on the one side, and the pride of the natural heart on the other; they cannot remain in gross heathenism ; they will not, if they can avoid it, submit to the humbling doctrines of Christianity. We hope that their present stand is but temporary. And how long is it since the first Protestant mission- IN NORTH INDIA. 221 aries went to China? Well might the faint-hearted have asked, When shall we see a result? But the Chinese rebellion has shown that the truth has pro- duced an effect — not altogether that which we would have desired — but one that at least shows that idola- try has been shaken to its foundations, and leaves, or will leave, the field clear for building up the truth on the debris of error. The second consideration is, that we have a greater amount of difficulties to contend with in India than perhaps anywhere else. Take into view first those mentioned in the preceding chapter, and those that are common to all our race of aliens from God. Then let us try to realize the obstruction thrown in our way by caste. All have heard of the four great castes of Hindus; and some may have thought that there must be many people who are not comprehended in any of these, and therefore will be without the trammels of this institution. And this was, no doubt, at first intended to be the operation of the system ; or perhaps it was intended by its founders, that all who fell from the higher castes should find a place in the lowest. But men can never fully calculate beforehand w T hat will be the effect of their policy; and probably the priestly caste little dreamed, when they settled their system of ranks, that outcasts and foreigners would so far follow their example as to band them- selves in castes in imitation of them. But this has happened — quarrels have split castes, the one party excommunicating the other; but neither party has forsaken the institution of caste — they have simply formed two instead of one. And these have again divided and subdivided, till no man knows their num- ber. Mistakes or omissions in their ritual have put Brahmans out of communion with the great body; but they have been able to form parties, and to retain the exercise of the priestly office in some places, though not allowed to be Brahmans in others; and 19* 222 MISSIONARY LIFE thus an endless variety of Brahmans is to be found. Illegitimacy has been the fruitful parent of new castes. Even the dead have formed a caste: — there is a town in Bengal, where those live who have recovered after being carried to the river to die. They are judicially dead according to Hindu law; and here they have settled, intermarried, have chil- dren, and observe caste amongst themselves, as much as if they had never lost caste, or had originated from one caste. There are a multitude of those whose parents lost caste ages ago, and they have banded together and formed new ones. The Mohammedans have fallen into the same custom, and are as careful to preserve a certain distance from others, totally uncommanded by the Koran, as any Hindus. Caste is genteel in Upper India. It is an appendage to character which no man is willing to own that he lacks. The effect of all this is, that no one is so low as to have nothing to lose by joining us. The ques- tion continually occurs, What shall we do out of caste ? And indeed it is a fearful thing to lose the privilege of ever eating again with parents, brothers and sisters, and other relatives, or of entering the house, or of aiding in sickness, or assisting to bury — to be cut off from all sympathy, and to become an object of detestation and loathing in exact proportion to the affection formerly enjoyed; and that too before the party the person joins is large enough to give security for some equivalent to these ruptured ties. Thus until the native Christians become so numerous as to form a recognized community by themselves, here will be a very great hinderance to the constitu- tionally timid, and to the w T eak in faith. Of all other mission fields ours most resembles the Turkish empire in this respect. The old churches there are like the castes in India in many things, especially in the un- social way in which dissidents are treated. And still another great obstruction is found in the IN NORTH INDIA. 223 religious and philosophical systems of the country, and in its pseudo-civilization. It is not in the same situation as the barbarous islands were, which had lost all confidence in their idols, and presented, as nearly as possible, a tabula rasa, on which to write a new faith. In India there is a high and romantic mythology, to give character to its idolatry, present- ing the grossest idolatry to the lowest, a gross poly- theism to the half-educated, and a refined and philo- sophical pantheism to the higher classes. The doctrines of both the Mohammedans and the Hindus are well suited to the corrupt propensities of human nature — both to those of the low and gross, and to those of the lovers of self-righteousness and spiritual pride. The priesthood, instead of being mere ignorant mummers, are intelligent men, with so much knowledge as easily to impose on the masses and exercise a great influence. India has a history, both political and literary; and our attempt is to overthrow both opinions and a social system, which are the growth of ages, and are con- nected with a certain and well defined form of civili- zation. The attempt is sublime in its magnitude. No political revolution that was ever attempted half equals it. Were not our dependence on something infinitely higher than the power of man, this attempt would not have hope enough to make it ridiculous — it would be simply beneath contempt. We are certainly superior to the people of India in learning and civili- zation; but not so superior as to have the advantage given by the immeasurable distance between Euro- peans and savages. We have something more to do than to clear the ground and build: we have first to pull down. I have already mentioned the baptism of the first native convert at Allahabad as having occurred the first summer after my arrival. Within the next year ^one of the catechists whom I have mentioned was re- ceived. From that time to the present, now and then 224 MISSIONARY LIFE one has been received from the Hindus and the Mo- hammedans, and several from the orphan asylums. The ratio of conversions is increasing. Scarcely a month passes now, in which the accession of some one or more to our churches is not reported. Some native Christians have been received from other places; some have been dismissed to other churches; and several have died. There are now about forty native communicants, including some assistants who have been sent to out-stations; and about double this num- ber have been members of the church in all. The whole native community gathered there is about one hundred and fifty, including the children in the or- phan asylums. The history of all other missionary stations in North India, so far as my acquaintance extends, is similar to this in regard to accessions. Some have had more, some less. At some of them greater facilities exist for giving employment to con- verts than at others. While at Agra I sent the in- quirers from that place to Futtehgurh for this reason. The members of our churches are not, of course, all equally satisfactory as to character. Some of them are without much zeal and activity as Christians; and . some are weak and stumbling Christians, too selfish, too worldly, too unsteady. So were some of the con- verts of the Apostles ; and when this cannot be said of a great many Christians in America, then I will enter upon such an apology as may be made for these in Hindustan. And some of our people really are very good people, and profit by the means of grace. They are not all that we should desire, but they are a light amongst the heathen. To show what some of them are, I will refer the reader to an article of mine, writ- ten for one of the missionary periodicals, and repub- lished by the Board of Publication, entitled "Poor Blind Sally." It gives an account of a blind girl, who, through love of the Scriptures, made astonishing progress in learning English from a single gospel, the IN NORTH INDIA. 225 only book we could then procure for her in the raised characters. Her spiritual attainments are set forth in that little work in such a light, that any reader of it will see that our labour is not fruitless. Another case is that of the young man, who went from our church to Agra with Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson pub- lished a notice of him when he died, which testifies to his sweet Christian character. Many a mourner for a dear brother has sorrowed less than did Mr. Wilson over the loss of this humble brother, whose body was the first planted in the yard of the new Presbyterian church at Agra. As another specimen of the work of grace amongst our people, I copy the following from a notice of Jatni, a deceased member of our church. It was written for childen, and for that reason may have too little dignity of style for some readers ; but I prefer not to alter it much. "You have, no doubt, often heard of happy deaths amongst Christians at home. Some of you have lost a father, or mother, or other dear friends, who have called you to their bedside, and have given you good advice, and taken leave of you. You may remember how your dear departed mother, in the paleness and weakness of approaching death, still looked happy ; and how her friends crowded around her bed with tears of sorrow and smiles of joy on their counte- nances — sorrow, that one so dear was about to be taken away; and joy, because she by faith could 'see heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.' You would not, perhaps, understand all that you saw; and your little hearts would be bursting with grief and fear. But still you can un- derstand enough to know, that true religion will give great comfort in the hour of death. This is so fre- quently seen in your favoured country, that if the death, which has occurred here, had taken place there, I should not have thought of writing about it for you. But, as I said before, it is in some points a new thing 226 MISSIONARY LIFE here. And I will tell you about it, so that you may see that true piety is the same thing everywhere. I wish also that you should see, that God blesses your missionaries, at least in some degree. We do not yet see the desert blossom as the rose-garden, from the refreshing showers of the Spirit of grace ; but we are permitted to see, now and then, a rose springing up, and opening out its beauties, to show us that the seed is taking root in the ground ; and that it is the right seed, of our Father's planting, and not merely the seed of tares, sown by an enemy. "Many years ago, a Brahman, named Ranjit, made a profession of Christianity at Chunar, and put him- self under the care of the late Rev. W. Bowley. There he was baptized, and after a while made a catechist, or native assistant. He was engaged some years as superintendent of a village belonging to the Church mission at Chunar. We hope he w T as a true Christian ; but it is painful to have to say, that he was not at all times so consistent as it is necessary and desirable a Christian man should be. We must remember that he had been brought up a heathen till he became a man; and more, that he was a Brahman — a caste that has some temptations and some vices that are peculiar to them, but which are the necessary result of their being worshipped as gods by the common people. He died several years ago. " This man had two daughters, of the younger of whom I am about to tell you. She was married, when about fifteen years old, to one of the young men who had been brought up at that mission; and they were shortly after sent to us by Mr. Bowley, for employ- ment. Her husband has since become the foreman of the printing-office under my care here. Both these persons were educated in connection with Mr. Bowley's orphan schools. They were not orphans, but taught with the orphans. "You must understand, that we do not allow any IN NORTH INDIA. 227 distinctions of caste amongst the Christians; they all visit each other, and eat together on such occasions, without making any difficulty about it. The Hindus call them Bhrasht, for this; that is, depraved, spoiled. But we teach them that only sin makes any one bhrasht; we tell them that nothing but good and bad conduct, and more or less education, ought to make any dis- tinctions amongst men. Our people generally get on very well together ; but you will not be surprised to hear that Satan sometimes tempts one and another of them to fancy themselves more genteel by birth than others. I remember very well, when I was a boy at school, as many of you are now, how some of us used to feel, because we lived in better houses, or had better clothes, or our fathers were rather more respectable than those of some others; and sometimes, when we were naughty enough to quarrel, we reproached others. I am ashamed of it now, whenever I think of it. I dare say some of you have done the same thing; and I hope you will soon be ashamed of it too. In this way I have known one to say here, 'I am the son of a Brahman, and your father was only a weaver; do you think to make yourself equal with me?' And another would say, 'I am a Rajput by birth, and your father was a cobbler; so what impertinence it is in you to think of disputing with me/ But this has very seldom happened, and for some years past scarcely at all. Our people are from almost every caste, and they get on together as peaceably as any community I ever knew. "The young woman of whom I am writing, was the daughter of a man of the very highest caste. Had her father continued in Hinduism, his daughter, while playing with the little girls of the village, might have taken their playthings away, or called them bad names, or pushed them, and they would not have dared to say anything. No children in your country can treat others so tyrannically as the high caste children here 228 MISSIONARY LIFE can the low caste. She might have been worshipped; there are various times when the virgin daughters of Brahmans are worshipped especially. And it is alto- gether probable that sometimes she had thoughts of pride come into her mind about the fact that her father was a Brahman. "This young woman was baptized in her childhood by the name of Betsey ; but was also frequently, indeed generally, called by her native name, Jatni. She was received to the communion in our church, five or six years ago. At that time she passed an examination ; but we did not see anything very remarkable in her. She was so modest, so shame-faced, that she never could, while in health, talk with us very freely. I have often noticed, that she seemed to pay perfect attention to the preaching of the gospel ; and when I have been in her house to speak on the subject of reli- gion, she always seemed to listen with great interest, and to be glad of the opportunity to learn. If I asked her any questions, she answered me in a satisfactory manner, so far as her extreme modesty, or timidity, would permit her to speak. But though so shy, it was not long before we discovered that her character had many excellencies. Though we could not often hear of anything in particular that she did, yet she gained the respect and love of .all the native Christian com- munity. All the men were ready to point to her as an example for their wives; and all the women, without envy or strife, acknowledged her as the most excellent person amongst them. The customs of this country almost entirely forbid a respectable woman speaking to a man out of her own family; and Jatni was too unfeignedly modest to find fault with the custom, or transgress against it. So her influence was not brought to bear upon the men as that of a good woman so often is in America. But this was more the fault of circum- stances than of herself. On one occasion, one of our young men had been guilty of some bad conduct, and IN NORTH INDIA. 229 I had thought it necessary to punish him. At first he resented it, and said he would not remain here; but he went on some errand to Jatni's house, and she asked him about his circumstances. He told her his griefs; and she told him how sin had brought them all upon him. She besought him not to go away. Her kindness brought him to tears and confession. He went to his work again, and has been a better man ever since. But her life was short; and the history of a quiet, modest, retiring female is soon written; it would not be so easy a task to write out an account of all the lovely traits of her character. "Now all this is in such marked and beautiful con- trast to the life of an ordinary native woman, that I love to dwell upon it. The heathen women are without education, and without useful employment, aside from cooking for their families. Their time is spent in use- less chatter, or clamorous quarrelling. A man would consider it the last and deepest disgrace to be known to have asked a woman's advice, or to have followed it when offered. Such a thing as a woman gaining influence for good, in a Hindu community, has not been know r n for the last two thousand years. But here was a woman, from amongst that very people, who, without effort, was a shining light to the full extent of her sphere; and without seeking it, exercised an influence on all around her. I gratefully acknowledge that, humble as she was, I valued the friendship she bore to my family. The last tears I saw on her face were shed when she sent her blessing to my little boy in America. Very pleasant was she to us. She never quarrelled, nor slandered, nor excited differences, but was a healer of divisions. The difference between her and her heathen countrywomen must have been seen, in order to be known; and all this was in such beau- tiful quietness and modesty, such feminine, and even lady-like delicacy. This woman was of the second generation ol Christians. The faults that I have 20 230 MISSIONARY LIFE hinted at, as existing in her father, did not appear in her. The benefit of early education in Christianity is here most manifest. Nearly all our hopes are placed on the generations to come, whose mothers shall have been Christians. " Jatni suffered many sorrows in her life. She had a darling little son. He was ' black, but comely.' It may be that you will be scarcely able to believe me when I say, that I have not seen five handsomer babies in my life than was little Abraham, black though he was; but it is quite true. He was finely formed, with a skin of the most perfectly healthy hue; his hair so fine, and his large, speaking, black eyes so pleasant. His head was most beautiful in shape. You may well believe that he was his mother's joy. At thirteen months of age he was suddenly cut clown by convulsions, after about a day's illness. My wife and I saw him die. Poor Jatni, who was not at all prepared for such an event, cast her arms around Mrs. Warren's waist, and hid her face in her bosom, and in a strain very similar to David's lament for Absalom, bemoaned her loss. But she neither did nor said anything unbecoming her Christian profession. After this she had another little boy, almost as fine a child as little Abraham, who died in the same way; and after this again a little daughter. On one of these occasions, for a few moments, she was almost wild with grief; but when I began to hold up to her view the heaven that is promised to believers and their infant children, she at once laid hold of and acknowledged the consolations of the gospel. "At last came sickness — fever, constantly return- ing in spite of all that could be done to check it. I suspected consumption, and soon it showed itself in a way that left no doubt but that we should soon lose her. I took the first favourable opportunity to ask her how she felt when the question came up in IN NORTH INDIA. 231 her mind, whether she should get well or not. I asked this with all the care and softness that I could; because I knew she was so timid, and I feared she might be shocked and injured. But I was delighted to find that she had thought of it, and had come to feel willing that God should do with her, as to life, just as he pleased. I questioned her closely, and set death and the judgment before her plainly; but her nerves were firm, her eye clear, and her voice calm and steady: her uniform profession, from that time forward, was, 4 I know Christ, and can fully and completely trust him in all things. He keeps my mind in perfect peace.' No soldier on the field of battle, and no brave and strong man in dan- ger, ever faced death with more cool, unwavering courage, than did this weak, timid, shrinking woman, though shattered by sickness and pain. I saw her often, and always found her the same. 44 Her disease was not very rapid in its destructive work. She wasted away for some months; some- times she had hope of recovery; but that hope did not produce any lessening of her resignation, nor did it seem to render her less fit for her great change. ^ At length she gave up all hope. I saw very little difference in her after this. She seemed to be ready to go ; and the main thing that I could notice in the state of her mind, was a quiet, calm, trustful waiting for the set time. At last, one Saturday evening, I saw that she was very near her end. I talked with her about the work that the Saviour still had for her to do ; and told her to pray for grace to speak and testify for him to the last. I gave orders to be called during the night, if she should seem to be dying. But she lived throughout Sunday. I went to see her before going to church on Sunday evening, and found that she was peaceful. When I returned from church she was dead. 44 As soon as it w T as known that I had come into 232 MISSIONARY LIFE my bungalow, my best native Christian assistant came to tell me of it. To my surprise, he spoke in a tone of unusual animation, and he seemed rejoicing. I asked, 'How did she die?' 4 0, sir, such a thing was never seen in the native Christian community in this part of the country before. She called for you, and was sorry she could not tell you how much she thanked you for all you had taught her, and com- forted her. Then she called for all of us, and when we went to her, she asked, if she had offended any one; and said, that if she had, she begged for par- don. Then she . said, she wanted to tell us that Christ was with her, and that her heart was full of joy and faith. Then she bade us all farewell, and prayed for us. We all knelt down and prayed for her. She spoke to her heathen servant, and told him to become a Christian. Then she remained silent a few moments, and suddenly died.' I said, 6 This is a very happy thing that has occurred, Baboo. This is not like a common death, that leaves a faint hope and a great deal of sorrow behind.' 'No, sir; it is not. Come out and see the people. You will see how those who loved her best rejoice rather than mourn.' I went out, and found a large party of the Christians gathered in the verandah. The body was laid out- there. All were calm. I talked to them a little about what they had witnessed. Many of them confessed, that when they had heard from us how happily Christians had died, they had hardly been able to believe it; but now r they had seen it — it was a strange thing to them. They had known Christians to die with some calmness; but they had never seen one triumphant and joyful. "The next day we laid the body of dear Jatni beside those of her three children. After the prayer at the side of the grave, one of the native Christians, apparently from a strong impulse, took up, in the Hindustani language, the beautiful words of the IN NORTH INDIA, 233 Episcopal burial service — beautiful when said over the grave of a true believer — 'Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, of his great mercy, to take unto himself the soul of our dear sister, here departed, we therefore commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' Then we all sprinkled some clay on her coffin, and left her i body, still united to Christ, to rest in the grave till the resurrection.' "What a glorious faith is the Christian's ! Dear reader, 'What think you of Christ?' Is he worth following? Will you ever be able to find another friend that can so stand by you in your greatest extremity. "What think you of preaching Christ? It was preaching Christ that produced these scenes, of which I have been writing. What do you think would have been the end of Jatni without the gospel ? Sullen stupidity and hardness of heart — the death of a beast; or raving fear, calling on idols for help, and finding none; or blaspheming anger against the gods, for so soon calling her away from life. These are common ways in which death is met in this coun- try. And what would her friends have done without the gospel ? They would have jumped about as if fire were being applied to their limbs, and would have screamed like mad people; and would have beaten their heads against the side of the bedstead or the walls of the house; their eyes would have rolled about, while thev beat their breasts and tore their hair. I have seen all this. Who, then, would say we ought not to send the gospel to India? " Give me to appear before the great white throne, with but one such Indian diamond in my crown, if it may be no more, and I am content !" I have given this obituary thus at length, because I 20* 234 MISSIONARY LIFE could not see what to leave out. I could much more easily add more. These also are not all the cases that could be brought forward. All our missions have witnessed scenes of peace on the death-bed, if not of triumph. But I desire not to weary my read- ers, and therefore will not do more in this particular direction; though I am well aware that true Chris- tians are more pleased with such exhibitions of spirit- ual fruit than with any other indications of success. Though the salvation of individual souls is the most pleasing proof of success, yet the general effect of our labours on the country is by no means to be left out of sight. Some persons may even think such an effect of more consequence than any other form of success; because, if Christianity be once planted there, the salvation of souls will follow as a matter of course. For this reason I will make as careful a statement as possible of the influence on public ideas which Christianity has gained. Much has been gained by our religion by a general impression having been created in its favour. Fifteen, or even ten years ago a native Christian was es- teemed a monster. A convert was not said to have changed his religion, but to have lost it — to have be- come an infidel, or worse. Latterly this prejudice is much abated, and the native Christians are acknow- ledged to have a religion. Once they were reviled, pushed away from the wells and other public places, and were a proverb for everything low. To become a Christian, was, in the estimation of the public, to throw off every restraint, to indulge every evil pro- pensity, and to wallow in all degradation. The Christian was known to regard no kind of food as unholy, and therefore he was considered as worse than even the Chamars, who acknowledge some re- straints, though they eat cattle that die of disease. The only notion that was generally entertained as to the restraints of religion, was that they related to IN NORTH INDIA. 235 food and personal connections; but now the natives known that our religion inculcates a pure morality, self-denial, and labour for the good of others. Since this knowledge of Christianity has been spread abroad, as well as a general notion of its doctrines, the na- tives treat Christians with much more consideration, and look on our religion as something really respecta- ble. It is a great thing to have been able to get the idea of a spiritual religion, and one that is connected with good morals, implanted in the general mind of the community. Along w 7 ith this knowledge of our faith is widely spread the impression that it will ulti- mately prevail. We are often told by the natives that we shall finally uproot Hinduism ; that the pre- sent generation will not be converted, but the next probably will, &c. These impressions afford us more facilities in preaching than we formerly enjoyed. Once Br&hmans could easily drive away an audience from us; now it is rarely attempted, and the attempt almost always fails. Once we were often opposed by certain other classes, who now usually avoid us. There were certain standing objections to Christianity and defences of Hinduism, which were often brought forward by our opponents, and are now generally abandoned. There were gross slanders current about our converts, such, as that we bought their adhesion with money and women,* which are now 7 obsolete, and seldom repeated. All these impressions, that have been made upon the mind of the country, are valuable. They are not saving impressions; and nothing short of these ought to satisfy us. Yet we are not to des- pise them. God is glorified when the religion of Christ is only recommended to men by its good fruits, Matt. v. 16. And this work has been done to such an extent that something like an excitement has been * A favourite story used to be, that we had engaged to give each convert a European wife — such a wife being considered beyond measure valuable. 236 MISSIONARY LIFE produced in different parts of the country. The work at Krishnagar has been referred to already, in which a multitude were converted. This is below our terri- tory, and where missions have been maintained longer. In our region we have seen something approaching to it. Near Futtehgurh a village was for a time in a state that gave great hopes, and which caused very much talk in that region. This unhappily died away without the fruit that had been hoped for; but we still hope that some favourable effects of it will yet appear. Near Lodiana is a sect that professes to worship only Jesus. It derives its doctrines from our books, and adds to them. Probably there is much that is wrong and unchristian in this sect; but the movement is indicative of a ferment caused by the leaven of truth. We also hope that some of these people may yet be led to the truth by it. Other facts of this kind also show that our doctrines are spread- ing, and are producing effect- — there is a shaking of the dry bones. The effect that has been produced upon the prevail- ing ideas of caste ought to be noticed. Formerly when a person lost caste, he was not only socially avoided, but he was considered wicked and despica- ble. To speak to him was a disgrace. His relatives avoided him as they would the plague, and even hated him. He had not only lost his social position, but had brought a disgrace upon all his family. Caste was connected with religious, as w T ell as with social, ideas. There has occurred a great change in this respect. Caste has not been abolished — perhaps is not near being so; but it has lost the character of holiness. If a man breaks its rules he is equally ex- cluded now as formerly; but the exclusion now relates to the table, to intermarriage, and the like. It does not cause people to treat the outcast with scorn. They will not eat with him ; but they content them- selves with avoiding him in this and similar things. IN NORTH INDIA. 237 He is rather treated as a stranger than a disgraced person. When I first went to India there were fre- quent cases that I was acquainted with, in which men fell under suspicion of having transgressed the rules of caste, and were always promptly suspended till they could prove their innocence or make atonement. The least suspicion alarmed the caste immediately, and they most jealously guarded their purity. An accused man had the burden of proof laid on him — ■ no one was called to prove his offence, but he must prove his innocence. This whole thing is changed now. The Hindus have grown so indifferent to the old ideas of the holiness of caste, that they do not care how much a man may be suspected. Let him eat what, and with whom, he will, and his compeers will deny and disbelieve it as long as possible. They will refuse to take up and examine the most probable charges. The whole burden of proof is laid on the accuser. We had a young Brahman candidate for baptism, who several times ate and drank with us and our people, and afterward repented of his intention, and went away from us. It was often told to the members of his caste that he had broken caste, but they would take no cognizance of the case, unless a member of the caste would come forward as accuser, and produce eye-witnesses; and as none of us would go to give testimony, there could be no conviction. He told me, when I asked him about it, "They know that I should join with the Christians immediately if they put me out; and though they know I am totally a transgressor, for whom no atonement can be made, yet they do not choose to believe it." A native Christian woman of ours, at first despised and rigidly exiled by her family, was at length invited to visit them, and was visited by them at my place. They seemed to have very pleasant intercourse, save that the heathen relatives avoided eating with her. This relaxation of caste is very significant and important. 238 MISSIONARY LIFE The institution may linger a while; but we may look for more and more infractions of its rules continually. The ideas of gentility, as connected with high birth, will cause the higher castes to claim consideration on account of it for a long time to come ; but when it comes to be a mere sign of social rank, it will be only a chained lion in our way. The general effects above spoken of, are evident from the number of persons that become inquirers for a time, and who, if they do not become converts to Christianity, probably assist much to spread a know- ledge of its doctrines and spirit. There is hardly any time when each station has not one or more per- sons under special instruction. These persons are of all castes, and from all parts of the country. Some of them prove converts, and are admitted ; some grow weary, and leave us when they find our religion so spiritual, and see that they have not the character we require, and do not like that character, and find that we have no ceremonies with which the conscience may be amused in the absence of a knowledge of the blood of sprinkling; and some come from worldly motives, play the hypocrite while it serves their purpose, and then go away. Some also are prevented from making a profession of Christianity by peculiar causes or infirmities. I will here give some personal anecdotes, which will show what is meant, better than these mere general statements. It will not be necessary, in this connection, to give the history of a convert; for these may be sufficiently gathered from other places. I will only mention some of those who have not yet made a profession of Christianity. About seven years since, I visited a village thirty- five miles above Allahabad, on the bank of the Ganges. The village possesses peculiar interest from two facts. It formerly had a fort, which commanded the Ganges at that point, built upon an eminence of about one hundred and fifty feet — one of the only two considera- IN NORTH INDIA. 239 ble heights that I know of on the Upper Ganges. This fort was the stronghold of a Hindu king, and was taken, after a long siege, by one of the early Moham- medan emperors. An immense number of persons perished in the besieging army. The tradition is, that the number was only five less than a hundred thousand ; and the Mohammedans say, that, as they all perished either in fighting for the faith, or in attendance on the army of the faithful, had there been only five more, to make up the round hundred thousand, the place would have become as holy as Mecca the Honourable. The burying-ground outside of the town is one of the most impressive of all scenes, presenting as complete a notion of the horrors of Avar as can be found. On battle-fields the dead are thrown into a common trench, and their graves do not afterwards suggest the details of the slaughter ; but here, as the sword or the pesti- lence cut down one after another, they were separately buried, and a brick grave constructed for each, of dif- ferent sizes and styles, corresponding to the different ranks. These graves remain, in all states of preserva- tion and decay, covering a desolate plain of great extent, and forming a monument of the siege unequal- led in size and appropriateness. The other interesting fact is, that ever since the cap- ture of that fortress, the town has been the residence of some Mohammedan families of distinction, which, though now much decayed, are still considered to be- long to the principal aristocracy of the country. I visited some of these families, and preached there, beside holding disputations in two of their houses. I found that Mr. Scott, my associate in the voyage to India, had stopped there on his way to Futtehgurh, and had given them some tracts. A young man seemed much interested when I preached, and followed me around, offering me such polite attention as he could. Afterwards he visited me at my house repeat- edly, held arguments, made inquiries, and read such 240 MISSIONARY LIFE books as I recommended. He made acquaintance with my native Christians, and received much instruction from the catechists. We had great hopes of him, and his friends considered him to have gone so far as to be unworthy of the social privileges of caste. They re- fused to eat or drink with him, till he should renounce intercourse with us. He continued in this way for several months, and professed to have entirely lost his belief in Mohammedanism; of the truth of which pro- fession I have no doubt. He found difficulties in some of the doctrines of the New Testament, especially in that of the divinity of Christ. We could not persuade him to let the discussion of such points alone, till he had examined the main question, as to the authority of the gospel ; but he would perplex himself with them, xifter exciting our hopes to the utmost, he gradually grew cool, and drew back; though he still professes friendship for us, and a general belief in Christianity. His friends were very anxious about him all the time that he was himself anxious; and they often visited us, and sought to put us down by argument. The ex- citement about this young man was the occasion of a great deal of preaching; and many of the friends of his family became acquainted with Christianity to a great extent. We still hope for good effects from this case. On one Sabbath morning, I went to preach for one of the other missionaries at the mission church, leaving my assistant, Babu Hari, to preach at the chapel con- nected with the printing-house. As I have before stated, this chapel faces the bazar road, and is often attended by Hindus and Mohammedans from curiosity. After I returned, Babu Hari brought to me a young man, apparently about twenty-two years old, who had attended his preaching that morning, and after- wards called on him at his house. I noticed that the Babu appeared much pleased; and on asking what had happened — what the young man wanted — I learned IN NORTH INDIA. 241 that he had been found, after the service, looking at the Babti's house from a little distance, and expressing a great desire to make his acquaintance. On being introduced, he told the Balm that he had long been seeking the way of salvation ; that ever since his mere boyhood he had been dissatisfied with Hinduism, and had sought for spiritual direction from the Mahratta Brahmans, amongst whom he had lived in Central India, without finding any rest, or good hope that his sins would be forgiven, through any course which they directed him to pursue; that he had then practised austerities under the direction of some faqirs, who lived on Mount A'bti, with the same want of success; that he had then attached himself to some Moham- medan faqirs, and found no relief under their direc- tion; and that latterly he had been wandering as chance led him, in the hope that he should find some one to show him the right way. Then, he said, this morning, when I saw your chapel open, and one or two going in, I also went in ; and you were just stat- ing how Christ, by the sacrifice of himself, had laid the ground for the full pardon of all who believe, and lives and reigns now to intercede for and govern his people; and that our own righteousness can never do us any good, while his is perfect. It came into my heart at once, "This is the righteousness that you need: you know how long you have tried to gain righteousness, and cannot — and here it can be given to you. This is what you want." On further con- versing with him, I thought he appeared more like an apostolic convert than any one I had ever seen; he seemed so entirely humble, and perfectly sensible that he was a ruined and helpless sinner, and appeared able to see through the doctrine of substitution so clearly; his love of God and Christ seemed so sim- ple, grateful and childlike; and his past ignorance of the gospel seemed so complete, while his ready acqui- escence in its statements was accompanied with such 21 242 MISSIONARY LIFE admiring wonder and joy, that the Babti and I could scarcely refrain from tears. We kept him with us, and instructed him. We found that, though a Mah- ratta, he could understand Hindi very well, and had no difficulty in reading it, because both languages are usually written in the Sanscrit character. A gentle- man authorized me to give him four rupees a month as a subsistence allowance on his account, till we should see what he would prove to be. He remained with us about six weeks, and read industriously, attending all our religious services, both social and public. At the end of that time, when the cool sea- son was just setting in, he came to me in the morning and asked for a month's allowance in advance, to enable him to get a padded cotton surcoat for winter, and said that he was going down to the city to get it. He then borrowed a fine suit of winter clothing, which had just been purchased by one of the young men in the printing-house, giving him the same account of what he intended to do, and started for the city. We never saw or heard of him afterwards. We debated many questions about him, with no result. Had he been a hypocrite all the time? His disappearance with the money and borrowed clothes looked like it. But if so, where did he get the knowledge of Chris- tianity that enabled him to play his game in such an exquisitely perfect manner? If he was a true man, what became of him ? Was it not possible that he fell into the hands of Thugs, or some other class of robbers, and was put out of the way? Mysterious disappearances from such causes were not at all un- common formerly, though less frequent lately. Our general impression was, that he was a thief; but while we were thus blaming him, perhaps he was gone a saint — perhaps a martyr — to glory. It is not likely that we shall ever, in this world, learn more of this chapter of my experience. One of the members of our church at Allahabad is IN NORTH INDIA. 243 the son of a Mohammedan gentleman, who is the head of one of the twelve sacred families of that city. The father had long been in the habit of cultivating the acquaintance of English gentlemen; and when our mission was formed at that place he made our ac- quaintance. We talked much with him, and were the means of convincing him of the truth of Christianity. His son was introduced to us by him, and soon wished to profess our religion. The father made no objection, and the son was received. The father often proposed being baptized; but as often as he did so, he had some scruple, or made some difficulty, that hindered the affair. At one time he objected to sit- ting at the communion-table, on account of two or three of our members, who had been low caste Hin- dus. At another, he objected to the use of wine at the communion, because he had never used it, and feared it would make him sick. At another, he said his baptism must be in private, and kept secret, be- cause he was afraid he should be murdered by his relatives. And at another time he said he would be baptized, if we would allow his body to be buried by his Mohammedan friends, and as that of a Mohamme- dan; because he was descended from kings, and was far too noble to lie down with the indiscriminate mob of the dead in a Christian burying-ground. We faith- fully and affectionately met his objections, teaching him as he needed; and he often appeared so well, giving up his objections, that we were frequently on the point of baptizing him; but then he would always stay proceedings by some new fancy, or by the exhibi- tion of something unchristian in his disposition. After he had passed several years in this way, he at last came to the conclusion that Christ would receive and save him without baptism; saying that he was only nomi- nally a Musalman, and was known by all not to prac- tise any Musalman rites, and to believe in Christ. He is old and somewhat childish now; and how far 244 MISSIONARY LIFE the decay of his intellect, and the power of his former prejudices, may have caused true faith to be imper- fect in its action and development, we cannot tell. I saw him when last in Allahabad, and exhorted him to become a Christian. He answered me, with a smile, "I am a Christian. " He had come to see me at considerable inconvenience to himself, being old and sick; and showed a good deal of affection for me and my family. A few years since I formed an acquaintance with a lawyer, practising in the courts at Allahabad, on the occasion of having some business in one of the courts as treasurer of the mission. Out of our busi- ness connection grew up a considerable acquaintance and intimacy between the lawyer and our catechists; and we talked with him about Christianity. After I left Allahabad for Agra his intimacy with our people and my successor continued, and I heard that he was near making a profession of our religion. But when I came down again, on my way home, he came to see me, and showed me his doubts about the divinity of Christ and the inspiration of Paul's epistles. I know not how he had imbibed such doubts. We conversed together about three hours, and I tried to settle him in the faith, but not with decided success. He seemed to me to be completely converted from Mohammedan- ism, but not to Christianity; though he appeared devout and honest. The last that I knew of him was, that he remained suspended in doubt, but still under instruction. It is probable that his self-conceit as an intellectual and learned man, and perhaps his vanity as an acute disputant, hindered him from a full recep- tion of the truth. Our brethren at Saharunpore have had an interest- ing case of a convert from a village near that place, whose baptism was delayed till he was taken sick, when he caused himself to be brought to them, and would have been baptized, had not they thought that IN NORTH INDIA. 245 the natives would say, that they had improperly wrought upon him to receive the ordinance when he was senseless or imbecile. He died professing faith in Christ, and his family and connections are still well disposed towards us. There are other persons, whose cases illustrate the fact that our doctrines are spreading and becoming influential. There are some who believe, and yet do not become personally acquainted with any mission- ary, and have not the opportunity to learn anything about the way of confessing Christ before men. There may be many hidden ones here and there, who have not access to any church, and do not know the usual mode of proceeding after believing. An instance of this kind is noticed in the fifth chapter, in the account of the fair of 1850; and another in a letter quoted from a friend. A young man of my acquaint- ance recently died at Allahabad confessing Christ earnestly, though he had not had decision enough to give up all for Christ by joining us. I knew a debat- ing society of Hindus at Agra, who opened their meetings with prayer in the name of Christ, and wrote their performances on the basis of Christian truth, though none of them were yet prepared to lose all for Christ. Our churches have received considerable accessions from the orphan asylums. These institutions have been very useful. They were formed during and im- mediately after the great famine of 1837. These asylums are accounted for in Chapter III, on the printing-house. From these all the churches have received accessions, and the native Christian commu- nities are much enlarged by them. Many of these people are now married, and are raising up families in our connection. These asylums have preached loud- ly to the heathen. The benevolence that gathered and sustains them has been a beautiful proof of the kind spirit of Christianity. They are therefore most 21* 246 MISSIONARY LIFE important. Some of our native assistant preachers have come from them. All the members of commu- nities, that have been raised up in them, have been entirely separated from all native castes, and have no interests conflicting with their Christian relations. Too much ought not to be expected of them; for the bad health that results from their early privations, and the helplessness of character that often is pro- duced hy such a secluded education, operate as hin- derances to their usefulness. But the valuable labours and influence of many of them, the nuclei they form for communities, and the improvement in their child- ren, are advantages gained, that ought to be estimated highly in an account of our success. A sign that our doctrines are producing an effect upon the country, is found in the fact, that works of controversy against them have been called forth. The Mohammedans and Hindus would never have written against us, had they not seen that there was a danger to their systems, to b£ averted if possible. The Mo- hammedans have produced many works, the greater part of which are against the Christian views as to the Godhead, and the authenticity of our Scriptures. One of these books enters very largely into an exhibition of alleged discrepancies of Scripture; and to make these appear as numerous' as possible, the author takes up our different translations, together with the Persian and Arabic ones, and takes the same verse from all, giving his own interpretation of what each version means, and so making the differences to appear as great as the most strained and unfair treatment can do. These works also bring forward other objections to the Bible. The stories of Noah's intoxication, and of Lot and his daughters, are treated as profane and wicked slanders of prophets, and are said to be sure indications that the book is not the true and original book of God, but a corruption of it. They also allege that there were prophecies of Mohammed as the last IN NORTH INDIA. 247 of the prophets, which we have erased from the Old and New Testaments; and thus they attempt to show, that although they do profess to believe in the Penta- teuch, the Psalms, and the Gospel, they need not and ought not to allow our Bible to be of any force in controversy. These books have been answered, and several others written, attacking their systems. Our missions have produced some valuable books bearing on this controversy. The circulation of native books is rather limited. The Hindus have made less attempts to defend their system in this way. One such was made at Benares, a few years ago. A young Pandit was induced by the Benares Brahmans to stand forward as their champion, and write a refutation of the Bible; but his attempt resulted in his own conversion, and he is now a useful preacher of the gospel. * Much has been done for Christianity by schools. All our mission stations have schools of various kinds. There are small vernacular schools, with Hindu teach- ers, in which Christian books are used, and which the missionaries visit as often as they can, to give them religious instruction. They also often make the places where these schools are kept, stands for preaching. Many boys that are brought up in these little schools remain our firm friends, and the most intelligent hearers of preaching amongst the common classes of natives. I have several times been befriended and supported in my efforts in the bazars, by former pupils in our schools. Every station also has its central school, in which English and science are taught, as well as the vernacular. Lately there has grown up a feeling, in certain quarters in America, that missionaries ought not to engage at all in giving instruction in secular know- ledge, but ought to confine themselves to the direct preaching of the gospel. This agitation I regret; for popular excitements are always liable to proceed too 248 MISSIONARY LIFE far. If this movement should result in the destruction of schools, instead of being confined to the correction of occasional abuses, it will be evil. I have never been engaged in teaching a native school to such an extent as at all to identify me personally with them, or give any bias to my convictions on this point; and there- fore I may claim to be a better judge of the policy of teaching than a professed teacher would be allowed to be; and better, perhaps, than those who have had less, or no opportunities for extended personal observation. First, then, the teaching of a school does not usually, and ought never to hinder a missionary from preach- ing. Whoever has read my chapters on preaching at the stations, and itinerating, will perceive that a mis- sionary who teaches a few hours in the day, may still have the morning and the evening for street and chapel preaching. If any neglect this branch of their labour, they should be dealt with as individuals, and brought to their duty. To abolish the schools would be a poor remedy, and probably not a successful one. A man who will not preach when he has the opportunity, should be recalled. The teacher may, and ought to, spend his winter vacation in itinerating. The schools ought to be so arranged that the missionary should not be employed in teaching more than two or three hours daily; and then he would have no excuse for not preaching at least once a day. The schoolroom is as good a preaching-place as any other. Indeed it affords more facilities than the street. We here retain the same audience through many successive occasions, and thus have a better opportunity to enforce and illus- trate the truth; while in the street we have the most fluctuating attendance. Not that the street ought to be forsaken for the school; and, equally, the school ought not to be abolished for the sake of the street — especially when both can be attended to as well as either alone. Secondly, it is a fact that no instruction can be IN NORTH INDIA. 249 given to Hindus on such matters as geography and astronomy, without proving to them the falsehood of some of their sacred books, and showing them most clearly the absurdity of some of their religious dog- mas. And if the missionaries do not teach them, they leave them so much under the influence of their pandits, whose power is, to a great extent, founded on their supposed knowledge of these matters. Not to teach, is to surrender the use of powerful weapons to our adversaries. And if the reader will refer to my remarks on the importance of a Christian literature, contained in the chapter on the preparation of books, he will see the importance and necessity of our teach- ing history, in order to prepare the native mind for the reception of the evidences of our religion. I do not mean to limit the power of God's grace, which can produce conviction in any circumstances; but still I am writing on the principle that means ought to be adapted to produce the end desired. Another reason for giving secular instruction is, that it benefits the people; and it is the work of Christianity to practise all kinds of beneficence. One of the most powerful objections to Christianity, which are ignorantly brought forward by infidels, is, that it is all for the soul, and nothing for the body ; and the best answer that can be given to the objection is, to point to the schools and hospitals, and similar institutions, that exist almost exclusively in Chris- tian lands. Now, the natives of Hindustan see the benign nature of our religion in the schools that we support and teach; and thus these institutions actually preach- — sometimes with a more distinct and forcible utterance than could be employed by their teachers in any other capacity. The last that I heard of the mission-school at Allahabad, it had six hundred scholars on its roll, and the roll was purged every month of all names marked absent during the whole previous month. The mis- 250 MISSIONARY LIFE sionary at the head of that school can give a lecture every morning on the passage of Scripture read, which will be understood and appreciated by about half of the school— a far larger audience than he could usually gain in the town. He can teach Bible lessons to the higher classes ; his native Christian teachers do the same to the lower classes; the pupils all learn Scripture history and the evidences of Christianity; and the whole powerful influence of the institution is in favour of the truth. " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." We ought to use all the instruments of doing good; and in such proportions and combina- tions as shall accomplish the greatest amount of good. We ought to preach and teach, to write and print. Why is it necessary that contending for one thing that is right should set us against another thing that is also right? Ultraism is no more proper in regard to the duty of direct preaching than in anything else. The East India Company supports several colleges for the education of the natives. Until recently the teachers in these colleges were forbidden to teach Christianity. Now there is guarded liberty to use the Bible in the instruction of pupils who do not ob- ject to it. The influence of these schools is in favour of the demolition of the native superstitions, and is so far good. The government has also determined to aid private and missionary schools under certain con- ditions. These improvements in the efforts of the government to promote sound education must be attri- buted, in some measure, to the influence of missions. The mission schools have triumphantly shown that there is no danger resulting from teaching the Scrip- tures, and also that schools will not be deserted because of their introduction. These schools, the railroads and telegraphs, and other influences that are brought to bear on India, give hope that some great changes are impending; and the Church ought to IN NORTH INDIA. 251 seize her full share of the influence to be exerted, and hold herself in readiness to use every future oppor- tunity. It would not be right to close this part of my work without making a plea for the country in which I have so long lived and laboured ; and if it were not appropriate, still my feelings would impel me to it. We have seen that the people need the gospel ; that we have liberty, protection and health to a good de- gree while proclaiming it; that the people are acces- sible ; that a great part of the preparatory work has been done, and a great many influences aid us; and that thousands are prepared, so far as knowledge is concerned, to be made the subjects of converting grace, if the Spirit of God were poured out upon them. The word is the instrument of the Spirit. That instrument is there present. It does not merely lie in books, but also in the minds of thousands of the people: they know enough to be wrought upon with- out further preparation, or any further miracle than is performed in every conversion from sin to holiness. If this be true, then the time is come that the Church should pray, with more earnestness and fervour than ever before, for the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon India, and upon all fields similarly white to the harvest. This is the great want of the present time. Prayer is more restrained than contributions or personal effort. There is not enough of either ; but Christians seem more ready to give and labour than to accompany their gifts with earnest, agonizing prayer, that God would follow them with his blessing. The formality, the brevity, and the cold tone of prayers offered for the heathen, together with the small attendance at missionary prayer-meetings, show that this is true. Christians lack enlarged thoughts and high aspirations in behalf of the cause of Christ. They feel less than they ought for either Christ, the Church, or for souls. From want of feeling, belief, 252 MISSIONARY LIFE though real, becomes low and uninfluential; and the prayer-meeting, which relates to things so little felt and appreciated, languishes; the petitions for the heathen become everywhere few, and are crowded into the end of the prayer, where they ought not to be, if Christ arranged the subjects of prayer properly when he taught his disciples to pray. The meeting thus becomes a burdensome ceremony; and it is no wonder that the smallest excuses serve to keep people away. So it happens that when Christians are assem- bled to pray about our Saviour's very last command, and may think that they have a clear right to expect the special fulfilment of the promise that accompanies it, then it is that He seems least of all present with them. This, surely, is not his fault. If our services were of the right character, we should not lack his presence. If we felt as we ought about the cause of Christ, we should be drawn to the place of prayer ; we should go to pour out desires that would not be restrained; we should seek there the exercise and relief of overpowering affections. Then Christ would keep his promise to us; and we have no right to it otherwise. If we prepare the altar, the wood, and the offering, he will be sure to send down the fire from heaven. Then let us pray that the Holy Spirit may do his part of the work of conversion — the indispensable and only efficient part — in the hearts of the multi- tudes whom we have taught in the cities, in the vil- lages and by the wayside, in the schools and by the press. The seed lies in their minds. The Holy Spirit can cause it to germinate, and send its roots all through their hearts. God waits to be gracious: for these things he will be inquired of by us, to- do them for us. Shall these enlightened heathens die, with the unfruitful seed in their hearts, to spring up and bring forth the fruit of eternal remorse hereafter, be- cause we will not take up a position which God can IN NORTH INDIA. 253 bless consistently with his glory ? It is a dreadful thought, that after all that has been done for the hea- then, ive should be the occasion of the crowning mercy being withheld from them. Let us learn to pray for Christ and his kingdom first, before we ask for daily bread or any other mercy to ourselves. If the Spirit were poured out on our missions in answer to prayer, and the intelligence were to come over, month after month, of souls pressing into the kingdom, what an impulse would be given to all that is good here ! How faith would be strengthened, and love and zeal warmed, and efforts redoubled, and a blessed revival be secured even here, that would fully show that "he that watereth, shall himself be watered." 22 254 MISSIONARY LIFE CONCLUSION. There are many other topics which a book on India might embrace, but the object proposed in the writing of this work does not necessarily include them. Many readers may have expected to see more on two sub- jects; that is, on the nature and doctrines of Hindu- ism, and on the character of the Hindus. The first of these topics has not been treated of, in a formal manner, chiefly because other works are accessible, which give a sufficient idea of it. And if any reader has not access to such works, he may learn from the incidental statements of this, a great many of its practices and much of its spirit. Further, a particu- lar description if its deities, its rites, and its sects, could not be brought into the compass of a book smaller than this. Less would tell scarcely more than may be gathered from what is already in this volume. And, after all, the great thing that Chris- tians need to know in this case, is the mournful fact, that there are thirty-five millions of people, within the field of our North India mission, who are following idols and Mohammed, and are under the influence of systems that lead them as directly and completely away from God as the arch-enemy of mankind could desire. Although they are, after a certain manner, a civilized people, yet they are as far from the truth as fetichism carries the people of Africa. This ought to be enough to excite the pity of all Christians ; and if it will not do so in some cases, neither would the most detailed statement of Hindu doctrines do so. The character of the people of North India, also, may be sufficiently gathered from this work, without a for- mal dissertation on the subject. There is only one IN NORTH INDIA. 255 essential matter that, on review, appears to the writer to have been neglected, which it is necessary to his design to add. The races that inhabit North India are the chief races of India in every point of view. It is the home of the Brahman, the Rajput, the Sikh, and the most valuable classes of the lower castes of Hindus. All history shows that this part of India has always been its head and heart. Here were the great king- doms of the Hindus. From this place went out the influences that formed all the systems of Central and Southern India. If those systems differ now from those of the north, it is only where the effeminacy of the south has operated to make Hinduism more lasci- vious and ferocious. The Rome of Hinduism is in the north — Benares. The great bathing places are all in the north — Allahabad, Hardwar, and the source of the Ganges. The holy land of Hinduism is in the north — the region about Mutthra. The chief and holiest Brahmans, the head of the Kulins of Bengal, are in the north — the Kanauj Brahmans. Musal- man Empire had its strength in the north, and from thence reached forth its long and strong arms all over the peninsula. The English army of Bengal is wholly recruited from the north — no soldiers are raised in Bengal proper. One who travels from Calcutta to the northwest will notice, after reaching Patna, that every day's march brings him amongst men of greater physical and mental vigour and stamina, and of more and more independence and manliness. How immeasurably important then, is it that this part of the Indian field should be diligently and abun- dantly cultivated. If this were Christian, the Hin- duism of other portions would have no standing- ground. Influences of a right kind would go forth from the region, which all the rest of India has always been accustomed to follow. And we stand, 256 MISSIONARY LIFE IN NORTH INDIA. as it were, at the very foot of the roads that lead into western China, Thibet, Afghanistan and all the coun- tries of central Asia. If North India were Christian, what influences would spread from it, literally radiat- ing over the darkest and most hopeless portions of Asia ! When a Christian is acquainted with history, understands the position and character of North India, and spreads out the map of Asia before him, so that he can see what grand movements our mis- sion may be initiating, it is enough to fire his soul with courage, perseverance and zeal. THEE ND. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16086 (724) 779-2111 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 729 203 A